Active galactic nuclei (AGN) have been observed to vary stochastically with 10-20 rms amplitudes over a range of optical wavelengths where the emission arises in an accretion disk. Since the accretion disk is unlikely to vary coherently, local fluctuations may be significantly larger than the global rms variability. We investigate toy models of quasar accretion disks consisting of a number of regions, n, whose temperatures vary independently with an amplitude of σ_T in dex. Models with large fluctuations (σ_T=0.35-0.50) in 100-1000 independently fluctuating zones for every factor of two in radius can explain the observed discrepancy between thin accretion disk sizes inferred from microlensing events and optical luminosity while matching the observed optical variability. For the same range of σ_T, inhomogeneous disk spectra provide excellent fits to the HST quasar composite without invoking global Compton scattering atmospheres to explain the high levels of observed UV emission. Simulated microlensing light curves for the Einstein cross from our time-varying toy models are well fit using a time-steady power-law temperature disk, and produce magnification light curves that are consistent with current microlensing observations. Deviations due to the inhomogeneous, time-dependent disk structure should occur above the 1% level in the light curves, detectable in future microlensing observations with millimag sensitivity.
Gravitational microlensing by the stellar population of lensing galaxies provides an important opportunity to spatially resolve the accretion disk structure in strongly lensed quasars. Some of the objects (like Einstein's cross) are reasonably consistent with the predictions of the standard accretion disk model. In other cases, the size of the emitting region is larger than predicted by the standard thin disk theory and practically independent on wavelength. This may be interpreted as an observational manifestation of an optically-thick scattering envelope possibly related to super-Eddington a…
Microlensing by the stellar population of lensing galaxies provides an important opportunity to spatially resolve the accretion disc structure in strongly lensed quasars. Disc sizes estimated this way are on average larger than the predictions of the standard Shakura-Sunyaev accretion disk model. Analysing the observational data on microlensing variability allows to suggest that some fraction of lensed quasars (primarily, smaller-mass objects) are accreting in super-Eddington regime. Super-Eddington accretion leads to formation of an optically-thick envelope scattering the radiation formed in …
We present single-epoch multi-wavelength optical-NIR observations of the "anomalous" lensed quasar SDSS J0924+0219, made using the Magellan 6.5-metre Baade telescope at Las Campanas Observatory, Chile. The data clearly resolve the anomalous bright image pair in the lensed system, and exhibit a strong decrease in the anomalous flux ratio with decreasing wavelength. This is interpreted as a result of microlensing of a source of decreasing size in the core of the lensed quasar. We model the radius of the continuum emission region, sigma, as a power-law in wavelength, sigma lambda^zeta. We place a…
Context. The steep-spectrum radio quasars (SSRQs) are powerful radio sources, with thermal emission from accretion disk and jet nonthermal emission likely both contributing in the Ultraviolet (UV)/optical luminosity, however the former may play a dominant role. While the UV/optical variability of SSRQs has been poorly studied, little is known on the mechanism of their variability. Aims. We investigate the mechanism of the UV/optical variability of SSRQs. Methods. A sample of eighteen SSRQs has been established in SDSS Stripe 82 region in our previous works, in which the flux and spectral varia…
Super-Eddington mass accretion has been suggested as an efficient mechanism to grow supermassive black holes (SMBHs). We investigate the imprint left by the radiative efficiency of the super-Eddington accretion process on the clustering of quasars using a new semi-analytic model of galaxy and quasar formation based on large-volume cosmological $N$-body simulations. Our model includes a simple model for the radiative efficiency of a quasar, which imitates the effect of photon trapping for a high mass accretion rate. We find that the model of radiative efficiency affects the relation between the…
Growing Supermassive Black Holes (SMBH) are believed to influence their parent galaxies in a negative way, terminating their growth by ejecting gas out before it could turn into stars. Here we present some of the most sophisticated SMBH feedback simulations to date showing that quasar's effects on galaxies are not always negative. We find that when the ambient shocked gas cools rapidly, the shocked gas is compressed into thin cold dense shells, filaments and clumps. Driving these high density features out is much more difficult than analytical models predict since dense filaments are resilient…
Using microlensing measurements from a sample of 27 image-pairs of 19 lensed quasars we determine a maximum likelihood estimate for the accretion disk size of an {{\em}average} quasar of $r_s=4.0^{+2.4}_{-3.1} $ light days at rest frame $<λ>=1736$Å for microlenses with a mean mass of $<M>=0.3M_\odot$. This value, in good agreement with previous results from smaller samples, is roughly a factor of 5 greater than the predictions of the standard thin disk model. The individual size estimates for the 19 quasars in our sample are also in excellent agreement with the results of the joint maximum lik…
The conditions within the ionization front of a quasar during reionization (T ~ 30,000 K, neutral hydrogen fraction ~ 0.5) are ideal for producing Lyman-alpha emission via collisional excitation of hydrogen atoms. Observations of this emission, which could subtend >10 arcmin$^2$ on the sky, would definitively demonstrate the presence of a neutral intergalactic medium at the observed epoch, placing valuable constraints on the progress of reionization. We find that the expected Lyman-alpha surface brightness is significantly weaker than previously determined and may be impossible to observe with…
An accretion flow onto a supermassive black hole is the primary process powering quasars. However, a geometry of this flow is not well constrained. Both global MHD simulations and observations suggest that there are several emission components present in the nucleus: an accretion disk, hot plasma (corona or sphere) with electrons scattering the optical and UV photons, and an outflow (wind/jet). The relative location and size of these emission components, as well as their "interplay" affect the emerging quasar spectrum. I review briefly standard accretion disk models and the recent progress, po…
Microlensing perturbations to the flux ratios of gravitationally lensed quasar images can vary with wavelength because of the chromatic dependence of the accretion disk's apparent size. Multiwavelength observations of microlensed quasars can thus constrain the temperature profiles of their accretion disks, a fundamental test of an important astrophysical process which is not currently possible using any other method. We present single-epoch broadband flux ratios for 12 quadruply lensed quasars in eight bands ranging from 0.36 to 2.2 microns, as well as Chandra 0.5--8 keV flux ratios for five o…
We estimate the accretion rates onto the supermassive black holes that power 20 of the highest-redshift quasars, at z>5.8, including the quasar with the highest redshift known to date -- ULAS J1120 at z=7.09. The analysis is based on the observed (rest-frame) optical luminosities and reliable "virial" estimates of the BH masses of the quasars, and utilizes scaling relations derived from thin accretion disk theory. The mass accretion rates through the postulated disks cover a wide range, dM_disk/dt~4-190 Msol/yr, with most of the objects (80\%) having dM_disk/dt~10-65 Msol/yr, confirming the Ed…
Current estimates of the normalized accretion rates of quasars (L/L_Edd), rely on measuring the velocity widths of broad optical-UV emission lines (e.g., H$β$ and Mg II $\lambda2800$). However, such lines tend to be weak or inaccessible in the most distant quasars, leading to increasing uncertainty in L/L_Edd estimates at $z > 6$. Utilizing a carefully selected sample of 53 radio-quiet quasars that have H$β$ and C IV $\lambda1549$ spectroscopy as well as {\sl Chandra} coverage, we searched for a robust accretion-rate indicator for quasars, particularly at the highest-accessible redshifts ($z \…
Microlensing perturbations to the magnification of gravitationally lensed quasar images are dependent on the angular size of the quasar. If quasar variability at visible wavelengths is caused by a change in the area of the accretion disk, it will affect the microlensing magnification. We derive the expected signal, assuming that the luminosity scales with some power of the disk area, and estimate its amplitude using simulations. We discuss the prospects for detecting the effect in real-world data and for using it to estimate the logarithmic slope of the luminosity's dependence on disk area. Su…
The UV/optical variability of active galactic nuclei and quasars is useful for understanding the physics of the accretion disk and is gradually attributed to the stochastic fluctuations over the accretion disk. Quasars generally appear bluer when they brighten in the UV/optical, the nature of which remains controversial. Recently \citeauthor{Sun2014} discovered that the color variation of quasars is timescale dependent, in the way that faster variations are even bluer than longer term ones. While this discovery can directly rule out models that simply attribute the color variation to contamina…
We present XMM-Newton imaging spectroscopy of ten weak emission-line quasars (WLQs) at $0.928\leq z \leq 3.767$, six of which are radio quiet and four which are radio intermediate. The new X-ray data enabled us to measure the power-law photon index, at rest-frame energies $>2$ keV, in each source with relatively high accuracy. These measurements allowed us to confirm previous reports that WLQs have steeper X-ray spectra, suggesting higher accretion rates with respect to 'typical' quasars. A comparison between the photon indices of our radio-quiet WLQs and those of a control sample of 85 source…
Infrared spectroscopy of the H-alpha emission lines of a sub-sample of 19 high-redshift (0.8 < z < 2.3) Molonglo quasars, selected at 408 MHz, is presented. These emission lines are fitted with composite models of broad and narrow emission, which include combinations of classical broad-line regions of fast-moving gas clouds lying outside the quasar nucleus, and/or a theoretical model of emission from an optically-thick, flattened, rotating accretion disk. All bar one of the nineteen sources are found to have emission consistent with the presence of an optically-emitting accretion disk, with th…
We use multi-wavelength microlensing measurements of a sample of 10 image pairs from 8 lensed quasars to study the structure of their accretion disks. By using spectroscopy or narrow band photometry we have been able to remove contamination from the weakly microlensed broad emission lines, extinction and any uncertainties in the large-scale macro magnification of the lens model. We determine a maximum likelihood estimate for the exponent of the size versus wavelength scaling ($r_s\propto λ^p$ corresponding to a disk temperature profile of $T\propto r^{-1/p}$) of $p=0.75^{+0.2}_{-0.2}$, and a B…
We present a brief description of a model for the broad emission line region (BELR) in quasars, which is supported by analysis of CIV and other emission lines in the spectra of high-z SDSS quasars. Specifically we consider a two-component BELR with a disk and wind where the relative strength of each component is a function of luminosity. The implications of such a model for our understanding of quasar outflows and estimates of their black hole masses and accretion rates are discussed.
The uncertain origin of the recently-discovered `changing-looking' quasar phenomenon -- in which a luminous quasar dims significantly to a quiescent state in repeat spectroscopy over ~10 year timescales -- may present unexpected challenges to our understanding of quasar accretion. To better understand this phenomenon, we take a first step to building a sample of changing-look quasars with a systematic but simple archival search for these objects in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 12. By leveraging the >10 year baselines for objects with repeat spectroscopy, we uncover two new changin…
We present 13 seasons of $R$-band photometry of the quadruply-lensed quasar WFI 2033-4723 from the 1.3m SMARTS telescope at CTIO and the 1.2m Euler Swiss Telescope at La Silla, in which we detect microlensing variability of $\sim0.2$ mags on a timescale of $\sim$6 years. Using a Bayesian Monte Carlo technique, we analyze the microlensing signal to obtain a measurement of the size of this system's accretion disk of $\log (r_s/{\rm cm}) = 15.86^{+0.25}_{-0.27}$ at $λ_{rest} = 2481{\rm Å}$, assuming a $60^\circ$ inclination angle. We confirm previous measurements of the BC and AB time delays, and…
We cross-correlate the SDSS DR3 quasar sample with FIRST and the Vestergaard et al. black hole (BH) mass sample to compare the mean accretion histories of optical and radio quasars. We find significant statistical evidence that radio quasars have a higher mean Eddington ratio Lambda at z > 2 with respect to optical quasars, while the situation is clearly reverse at z < 1. At z > 2 radio quasars happen to be less massive than optical quasars; however, as redshift decreases radio quasars appear in increasingly more massive BHs with respect to optical quasars. These two trends imply that radio so…
The optical-UV continuum of quasars is broadly consistent with the emission from a geometrically thin optically thick accretion disk (AD). The AD produces the ionizing continuum which powers the broad and narrow emission lines. The maximum AD effective temperature is given by Teff=fmax(Mdot/M^2)^1/4, where M is the black hole mass, Mdot the accretion rate, and fmax is set by the black hole spin a_*. For a low enough value of Mdot/M^2 the AD may become too cold to produce ionizing photons. Such an object will form a lineless quasar. This occurs for a local blackbody (BB) AD with a luminosity Lo…
We use the microlensing variability observed for eleven gravitationally lensed quasars to show that the accretion disk size at a rest-frame wavelength of 2500 Angstroms is related to the black hole mass by log(R_{2500}/cm)=(15.78\pm0.12) + (0.80\pm0.17)\log(M_BH/10^9M_sun). This scaling is consistent with the expectation from thin disk theory (R ~ M_BH^{2/3}), but when interpreted in terms of the standard thin disk model (T ~ R^{-3/4}), it implies that black holes radiate with very low efficiency, log(eta) = -1.77\pm0.29 + log(L/L_E) where eta=L/(Mdot*c^2). Only by making the maximum reasonabl…
We use the science demonstration field data of the Herschel-ATLAS to study how star formation, traced by the far-infrared Herschel data, is related to both the accretion luminosity and redshift of quasars selected from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and the 2SLAQ survey. By developing a maximum likelihood estimator to investigate the presence of correlations between the far-infrared and optical luminosities we find evidence that the star-formation in quasar hosts is correlated with both redshift and quasar accretion luminosity. Assuming a relationship of the form L_IR \propto L_QSO^θ (1 + z)^ζ, …
We study the disk-jet connection in supermassive black holes by investigating the properties of their optical and radio emissions utilizing the SDSS-DR7 and the NVSS catalogs. Our sample contains 7017 radio-loud quasars with detection both at 1.4~GHz and SDSS optical spectrum. Using this radio-loud quasar sample, we investigate the correlation among the jet power ($P_{\rm jet}$), the bolometric disk luminosity ($L_{\rm disk}$), and the black hole mass ($M_{\rm BH}$) in the standard accretion disk regime. We find that the jet powers correlate with the bolometric disk luminosities as $\log P_{\r…
We present an X-ray and multiwavelength study of 33 weak emission-line quasars (WLQs) and 18 quasars that are analogs of the extreme WLQ, PHL 1811, at z ~ 0.5-2.9. New Chandra 1.5-9.5 ks exploratory observations were obtained for 32 objects while the others have archival X-ray observations. Significant fractions of these luminous type 1 quasars are distinctly X-ray weak compared to typical quasars, including 16 (48%) of the WLQs and 17 (94%) of the PHL 1811 analogs with average X-ray weakness factors of 17 and 39, respectively. We measure a relatively hard ($Γ=1.16_{-0.32}^{+0.37}$) effective …
Microlensing observations indicate that quasar accretion discs have half-light radii larger than expected from standard theoretical predictions based on quasar fluxes or black hole masses. Blackburne and colleagues have also found a very weak wavelength dependence of these half-light radii. We consider disc temperature profile models that might match these observations. Nixon and colleagues have suggested that misaligned accretion discs around spinning black holes will be disrupted at radii small enough for the Lense-Thirring torque to overcome the disc's viscous torque. Gas in precessing annu…
We present Gemini-North K-band spectra of two representative members of the class of high-redshift quasars with exceptionally weak rest-frame ultraviolet emission lines (WLQs), SDSS J114153.34+021924.3 at z=3.55 and SDSS J123743.08+630144.9 at z=3.49. In both sources we detect an unusually weak broad H_beta line and we place tight upper limits on the strengths of their [O III] lines. Virial, H_beta-based black-hole mass determinations indicate normalized accretion rates of L/L_Edd=0.4 for these sources, which is well within the range observed for typical quasars with similar luminosities and r…
We study the interaction of feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) and a multi-phase interstellar medium (ISM), in simulations including explicit stellar feedback, multi-phase cooling, accretion-disk winds, and Compton heating. We examine radii ~0.1-100 pc around a black hole (BH), where the accretion rate onto the BH is determined and where AGN-powered winds and radiation couple to the ISM. We conclude: (1) The BH accretion rate is determined by exchange of angular momentum between gas and stars in gravitational instabilities. This produces accretion rates ~0.03-1 Msun/yr, sufficient to p…
Star-forming galaxies (SFGs) are forming stars at a regular pace, forming the so-called main sequence (MS). However, all studies of their gas content show that their gas reservoir ought to be depleted in 0.5-2 Gyr. Thus, SFGs are thought to be fed by the continuous accretion of intergalactic gas in order to sustain their star-formation activity. However, direct observational evidence for this accretion phenomenon has been elusive. Theoretically, the accreted gas coming from the intergalactic medium is expected to orbit about the halo, delivering not just fuel for star-formation but also angula…
Quasars are rapidly accreting supermassive black holes at the center of massive galaxies. They display a broad range of properties across all wavelengths, reflecting the diversity in the physical conditions of the regions close to the central engine. These properties, however, are not random, but form well-defined trends. The dominant trend is known as Eigenvector 1, where many properties correlate with the strength of optical iron and [OIII] emission. The main physical driver of Eigenvector 1 has long been suspected to be the quasar luminosity normalized by the mass of the hole (the Eddington…
Observations of the most distant bright quasars imply that billion solar mass supermassive black holes (SMBH) have to be assembled within the first eight hundred million years. Under our standard galaxy formation scenario such fast growth implies large gas densities providing sustained accretion at critical or supercritical rates onto an initial black hole seed. It has been a long standing question whether and how such high black hole accretion rates can be achieved and sustained at the centers of early galaxies. Here we use our new cosmological hydrodynamic simulation (MassiveBlack) covering …
We present Atacama Large Millimeter Array 1mm observations of the rest-frame far-infrared (FIR) dust continuum in 27 quasars at redshifts 6.0 < z < 6.7. We detect FIR emission at >3sigma in all quasar host galaxies with flux densities at ~1900GHz in the rest-frame of 0.12 < S_rest,1900GHz < 5.9mJy, with a median (mean) flux density of 0.88mJy (1.59mJy). The implied FIR luminosities range from L_FIR = (0.27-13)x10^12 L_sun, with 74% of our quasar hosts having L_FIR > 10^12 L_sun. The estimated dust masses are M_dust = 10^7-10^9 M_sun. If the dust is heated only by star formation, then the star …
On the relative CNO underabundance in quasar absorption systems at $z \sim 3$ arising from Population III enrichment and attenuation by intermediate-mass black holes and primordial baryon accretion
National Institute for Space Research (INPE), Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais（国家空间研究所）
We examine unresolved nuclear X-ray sources in 57 brightest cluster galaxies to study the relationship between nuclear X-ray emission and accretion onto supermassive black holes (SMBHs). The majority of the clusters in our sample have prominent X-ray cavities embedded in the surrounding hot atmospheres, which we use to estimate mean jet power and average accretion rate onto the SMBHs over the past several hundred Myr. We find that ~50% of the sample have detectable nuclear X-ray emission. The nuclear X-ray luminosity is correlated with average accretion rate determined using X-ray cavities, wh…
We compiled a catalogue of about 4000 SDSS quasars including individual estimators V for the variability strength, virial black hole masses M, and mass accretion rates dM/dt from the Davis-Laor scaling relation. We confirm significant anti-correlations between V and dM/dt, the Eddington ratio, and the bolometric luminosity L, respectively. A weak, statistically not significant positive trend is indicated for the dependence of V on M. As a side product, we find a strong correlation of the radiative efficiency with M and show that this trend is most likely produced by selection effects in combin…
All quasar spectra show the same atomic features in the optical, UV, near-IR and soft X-rays over all of cosmic time, luminosity black hole mass and accretion rate. This is a puzzle. Here I show that it is possible that all of these atomic features can be accounted for by gas from an accretion disk driven by the three forms of radiation pressure: electron scattering, line driving and dust driving. The locations where they successfully drive an escaping wind, and those where they produce only a failed wind are both needed to produce the observed features.
In an effort to search for Ly$α$ emission from circum- and intergalactic gas on scales of hundreds of kpc around $z\sim3$ quasars, and thus characterise the physical properties of the gas in emission, we have initiated an extensive fast-survey with the Multi Unit Spectroscopic Explorer (MUSE): Quasar Snapshot Observations with MUse: Search for Extended Ultraviolet eMission (QSO MUSEUM). In this work, we report the discovery of an enormous Ly$α$ nebula (ELAN) around the quasar SDSS~J102009.99+104002.7 at $z=3.164$, which we followed-up with deeper MUSE observations. This ELAN spans $\sim297$ pr…
We present discovery observations of a quasar in the Canada-France High-z Quasar Survey (CFHQS) at redshift z=6.44. We also use near-IR spectroscopy of nine CFHQS quasars at z~6 to determine black hole masses. These are compared with similar estimates for more luminous Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) quasars to investigate the relationship between black hole mass and quasar luminosity. We find a strong correlation between MgII FWHM and UV luminosity and that most quasars at this early epoch are accreting close to the Eddington limit. Thus these quasars appear to be in an early stage of their l…
We present X-ray and multiwavelength analyses of 32 weak emission-line quasars (WLQs) selected in a consistent and unbiased manner. New $Chandra$ 3.1-4.8 ks observations were obtained for 14 of these WLQs with C IV rest-frame equivalent widths (REWs) of 5-15 Å, and these serve as an X-ray observational "bridge" between previously studied WLQs with C IV REW $\lesssim$ 5 Å and more-typical quasars with C IV REW $\approx$ 15-100 Å. We have identified and quantified a strong dependence of the fraction of X-ray weak quasars upon C IV REW; this fraction declines by a factor of $\approx 13$ (from $\a…
BAQARO: Tracing Stochastic Black Hole Growth Histories and Quasar Lightcurves in a Cosmological Context
Center for Astrophysics | Harvard & Smithsonian（天体物理中心 | 哈佛与史密森尼学会）；Leiden Observatory, Leiden University（莱顿天文台，莱顿大学）；Department of Physics, University of California, Santa Barbara（加州大学圣塔芭芭拉分校物理系）
