arXivDaily arXiv每日学术速递 周一至周五更新
arXiv 0910.3893astro-ph.GAastro-ph.IM
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用高频VLBI探测人马座A* 的变极化结构

Detecting Changing Polarization Structures in Sagittarius A* with High Frequency VLBI

Vincent L. Fish, Sheperd S. Doeleman, Avery E. Broderick, Abraham Loeb, Alan E. E. Rogers

摘要:

人马座A* 是近红外线、X射线、无线电和(亚)毫米辐射源,与银河系中心的超大质量黑洞有关。在亚毫米波段,Sgr A* 在时间尺度上表现出随时间变化的线性偏振,对应于假定的400万太阳质量的黑洞的<10史瓦西半径。在以前的工作中,我们证明了潜在的总强度(分)毫米波长VLBI检测时变-和周期性-源结构的变化,在Sgr A* 黑洞系统使用nonimaging分析。在这里,我们扩展这项工作,包括全极化VLBI观测。我们模拟全偏振(亚)毫米VLBI数据的Sgr A* 使用热点模型,是嵌入在一个吸积盘,重点是非成像偏振数据产品,对校准误差是强大的。虽然模型中的源积分线性偏振分数通常只有几个百分比,但小角度尺度上的线性偏振分数可以高得多,从而能够检测各种基线上Sgr A* 的偏振结构的变化。最短的基线跟踪源集成的线性偏振分数,而较长的基线是敏感的偏振子结构,光束稀释的连接元件干涉。即使仪器偏振项不能被校准,源偏振的周期性变化的检测也不应受到显著影响。随着更多的天线被包括在(分)毫米VLBI阵列,观测与全极化将提供重要的新的诊断,以帮助解开内在的源极化法拉第旋转效应的吸积和流出区域接近黑洞事件视界。

英文摘要:

Sagittarius A* is the source of near infrared, X-ray, radio, and (sub)millimeter emission associated with the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center. In the submillimeter regime, Sgr A* exhibits time-variable linear polarization on timescales corresponding to <10 Schwarzschild radii of the presumed 4 million solar mass black hole. In previous work, we demonstrated the potential for total-intensity (sub)millimeter-wavelength VLBI to detect time-variable -- and periodic -- source structure changes in the Sgr A* black hole system using nonimaging analyses. Here we extend this work to include full polarimetric VLBI observations. We simulate full-polarization (sub)millimeter VLBI data of Sgr A* using a hot-spot model that is embedded within an accretion disk, with emphasis on nonimaging polarimetric data products that are robust against calibration errors. Although the source-integrated linear polarization fraction in the models is typically only a few percent, the linear polarization fraction on small angular scales can be much higher, enabling the detection of changes in the polarimetric structure of Sgr A* on a wide variety of baselines. The shortest baselines track the source-integrated linear polarization fraction, while longer baselines are sensitive to polarization substructures that are beam-diluted by connected-element interferometry. The detection of periodic variability in source polarization should not be significantly affected even if instrumental polarization terms cannot be calibrated out. As more antennas are included in the (sub)mm-VLBI array, observations with full polarization will provide important new diagnostics to help disentangle intrinsic source polarization from Faraday rotation effects in the accretion and outflow region close to the black hole event horizon.

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