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arXiv 1709.09896astro-ph.GA
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来自Sgr A* 的明亮X射线耀斑

Bright X-ray flares from Sgr A*

G. D. Karssen, M. Bursa, A. Eckart, M. Valencia-S., M. Dovciak, V. Karas, J. Horak

摘要:

我们解决一个问题,是否观测到的光变曲线的X射线耀斑起源于银河系核心深处可以给我们独立的约束中心的超大质量黑洞的质量。为此,我们研究了人马座A* 记录的四个最亮的耀斑。它们都表现出不对称的形状,与两个本质上分离的峰的组合一致,这两个峰相对于彼此以一定的时间延迟发生,并且其特征在于它们的互通量比和上升/下降部分的轮廓。这种不对称的形状自然地出现在一个临时闪光的场景中,该闪光来自一个在超大质量黑洞附近轨道运行的源,半径仅为10-20个引力半径。相对论效应的相互作用导致了观测到的光变曲线的调制:多普勒增强、引力红移、光聚焦和光传播时间延迟。我们发现耀斑特性与模拟结果(我们的光线跟踪代码sim 5lib)一致。每个耀斑的推断质量与先前基于恒星轨道的估计一致;后者在半径和时间尺度上被观测到,比X射线耀斑的典型值大两个数量级,所以这两种方法确实不同。我们测试的方法的可靠性,将其应用到另一个对象,即,塞弗特我星系RE J1034+396。

英文摘要:

We address a question whether the observed light curves of X-ray flares originating deep in galactic cores can give us independent constraints on the mass of the central supermassive black hole. To this end we study four brightest flares that have been recorded from Sagittarius A*. They all exhibit an asymmetric shape consistent with a combination of two intrinsically separate peaks that occur at a certain time-delay with respect to each other, and are characterized by their mutual flux ratio and the profile of raising/declining parts. Such asymmetric shapes arise naturally in the scenario of a temporary flash from a source orbiting near a super- massive black hole, at radius of only 10-20 gravitational radii. An interplay of relativistic effects is responsible for the modulation of the observed light curves: Doppler boosting, gravitational redshift, light focusing, and light-travel time delays. We find the flare properties to be in agreement with the simulations (our ray-tracing code sim5lib). The inferred mass for each of the flares comes out in agreement with previous estimates based on orbits of stars; the latter have been observed at radii and over time-scales two orders of magnitude larger than those typical for the X-ray flares, so the two methods are genuinely different. We test the reliability of the method by applying it to another object, namely, the Seyfert I galaxy RE J1034+396.

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