arXivDaily arXiv每日学术速递 周一至周五更新
北美退伍军人节(Veterans Day),12 日无更新
arXiv 0903.5315astro-ph.COastro-ph.HE
收藏

类星体光通量的变化是由热涨落驱动的吗?

Are the Variations in Quasar Optical Flux Driven by Thermal Fluctuations?

Brandon C. Kelly, Jill Bechtold, Aneta Siemiginowska

摘要:

我们分析了100个类星体的光学光变曲线样本,其中70个类星体有黑洞质量估计。我们的样本是迄今为止用于模拟类星体可变性的最大和最广泛的。我们样本中的源具有z < 2.8和10^6 < M_BH < 10^10。我们将光变曲线模拟为一个连续时间的随机过程,提供了一种自然的方法来估计类星体变化的特征时间尺度和幅度。我们采用贝叶斯方法来估计特征时间尺度和通量变化的幅度,我们的方法是不受离散采样效应引入的偏差。我们发现特征时间尺度与黑洞的质量和光度有很强的相关性,并且与盘轨道或热时间尺度是一致的。此外,短时间尺度变化的幅度与黑洞质量和光度显著反相关。我们解释的光通量的波动所造成的热波动,是由一个潜在的随机过程,如湍流磁场。此外,我们的经验模型所暗示的光通量的夜间变化< 0.02等,与目前射电宁静类星体的微变观测一致。因此,我们的随机模型能够统一无线电安静类星体的长时间和短时间尺度光学变化,因为它们是由相同的基本过程引起的,而无线电大声类星体有一个额外的可变性组件,在< 1天的时间尺度上运行。

英文摘要:

We analyze a sample of optical light curves for 100 quasars, 70 of which have black hole mass estimates. Our sample is the largest and broadest used yet for modeling quasar variability. The sources in our sample have z < 2.8 and 10^6 < M_BH < 10^10. We model the light curves as a continuous time stochastic process, providing a natural means of estimating the characteristic time scale and amplitude of quasar variations. We employ a Bayesian approach to estimate the characteristic time scale and amplitude of flux variations; our approach is not affected by biases introduced from discrete sampling effects. We find that the characteristic time scales strongly correlate with black hole mass and luminosity, and are consistent with disk orbital or thermal time scales. In addition, the amplitude of short time scale variations is significantly anti-correlated with black hole mass and luminosity. We interpret the optical flux fluctuations as resulting from thermal fluctuations that are driven by an underlying stochastic process, such as a turbulent magnetic field. In addition, the intranight variations in optical flux implied by our empirical model are < 0.02 mag, consistent with current microvariability observations of radio-quiet quasars. Our stochastic model is therefore able to unify both long and short time scale optical variations in radio-quiet quasars as resulting from the same underlying process, while radio-loud quasars have an additional variability component that operates on time scales < 1 day.

机构、总结、中文摘要均由AI分析而来,可能存在错误,请以论文正文为准。

↑