Sub-parsec supermassive black hole (SMBH) binaries are expected to be common in active galactic nuclei (AGN), as a result of the hierarchical build-up of galaxies via mergers. While direct evidence for these compact binaries is lacking, a few hundred candidates have been identified, most based on the apparent periodicities of their optical light-curves. Since these signatures can be mimicked by AGN red-noise, additional evidence is needed to confirm their binary nature. Recurring self-lensing flares (SLF), occurring whenever the two BHs are aligned with the line of sight within their Einstein radii, have been suggested as additional binary signatures. Furthermore, in many cases, lensing flares are also predicted to contain a "dip", whenever the lensed SMBH's shadow is comparable in angular size to the binary's Einstein radius. This feature would unambiguously confirm binaries and additionally identify SMBH shadows that are spatially unresolvable by high-resolution VLBI. Here we estimate the number of quasars for which these dips may be detectable by LSST, by extrapolating the quasar luminosity function to faint magnitudes, and assuming that SMBH binaries are randomly oriented and have mass-ratios following those in the Illustris simulations. Under plausible assumptions about quasar lifetimes, binary fractions, and Eddington ratios, we expect tens of thousands of detectable flares, of which several dozen contain measurable dips.
Supermassive black hole (BH) binaries are thought to produce self-lensing flares (SLF) when the two BHs are aligned with the line-of-sight. If the binary orbit is observed nearly edge-on, we find a distinct feature in the light curve imprinted by the BH shadow from the lensed BH. We study this feature by ray-tracing in a binary model and predict that 1\% of the current binary candidates could show this feature. Our BH tomography method proposed here could make it possible to extract BH shadows that are spatially unresolvable by high-resolution VLBI.
The ultra-luminous X-ray source (ULX) M82 X-1 is one of the most promising intermediate mass black hole candidates in the local universe based on its high X-ray luminosities ($10^{40}-10^{41} {\rm erg s^{-1}}$) and quasi-periodic oscillations, and is possibly associated with a radio flare source. In this work, applying the sub-pixel technique to the 120 ks Chandra observation (ID: 10543) of M82 X-1, we split M82 X-1 into two sources separated by 1.1$\arcsec$. The secondary source is not detected in other M82 observations. The radio flare source is found to associate not with M82 X-1, but with …
Resonant Shattering flares (RSFs) are bursts of gamma-rays expected to be triggered by tidal resonance of a neutron star (NS) during binary inspiral. They are strongly dependent on the magnetic field strength at the surface of the NS. By modelling these flares as being the result of multiple colliding relativistic shells launched during the resonance window, we find that the prompt non-thermal gamma-ray emission may have luminosity up to a few $\times10^{48}\text{ erg/s}$, and that a broad-band afterglow could be produced. We compute the expected rates of detectable RSFs using the BPASS popula…
We explore a unique electromagnetic signature of stellar-mass compact-object binaries long before they are detectable in gravitational waves. We show that gravitational lensing of light emitting components of a compact-object binary, by the other binary component, could be detectable in the nearby universe. This periodic lensing signature could be detected from present and future X-ray observations, identifying the progenitors of binaries that merge in the LIGO band, and also unveiling populations that do not merge, thus providing a tracer of the compact-object binary population in an enigmati…
The self-lensing of a massive black hole binary (MBHB), which occurs when the two BHs are aligned close to the line of sight, is expected to produce periodic, short-duration flares. Here we study the shapes of self-lensing flares (SLFs) via general-relativistic ray tracing in a superimposed binary BH metric, in which the emission is generated by geometrically thin accretion flows around each component. The suite of models covers eccentric binary orbits, black hole spins, unequal mass binaries, and different emission model geometries. We explore the above parameter space, and report how the lig…
Electromagnetic precursors to black hole - neutron star gravitational wave events: Flares and reconnection-powered fast-radio transients from the late inspiral
Non-blazar AGN have been recently established as a class of gamma-ray sources. M87, a nearby representative of this class, show fast TeV variability on timescales of a few days. We suggest a scenario of flare gamma-ray emission in non-blazar AGN based on a red giant interacting with the jet at the base. We solve the hydrodynamical equations that describe the evolution of the envelope of a red giant blown by the impact of the jet. If the red giant is at least slightly tidally disrupted by the supermassive black hole, enough stellar material will be blown by the jet, expanding quickly until a si…
Kerr black holes coupled to quantized bosonic fields display a special version of the Hawking effect, governed by the superradiance condition. This leads to rapid growth of boson cloud through spontaneous creation, leading to slowing down of the black hole, and detectable as growth of the black hole shadow. This can be developed into a technique for searching or constraining the existence of ultralight bosons. We study this phenomenon for spin-0 bosons in the shadow of a black hole, with a detailed analysis of Sgr$A^*$, and put estimates on the evolution time scales and subsequent change in th…
We report on the nature of prominent sources of light and shadow in the Galactic Center. With respect to the Bremsstrahlung X-ray emission of the hot plasma in that region the Galactic Center casts a 'shadow'. The 'shadow' is caused by the Circum Nuclear Disk that surrounds SgrA* at a distance of about 1 to 2 parsec. This detection allows us to do a detailed investigation of the physical properties of the surroundings of the super massive black hole. Further in, the cluster of high velocity stars orbiting the central super massive black hole SgrA* represents an ideal probe for the gravitationa…
Photon rings near the edge of a black hole shadow is supposed to be a unique tool to validate general relativity and provide reliable measurements of principal black hole parameters: spin and mass. Such measurements are possible though only for nearby supermassive black holes (SMBH) with Space-Earth Very Long Baseline Interferometry (S-VLBI) in the submillimeter wavelength range. For subrings to be distinguished S-EVLBI observations with long baselines at the Lagrangian Sun-Earth L2 libration point are needed. However, the average fluxes of nearby SMBH: Sagittarius A$^\ast$ (Sgr A$^\ast$) and …
Supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei launch relativistic jets, as indicated by observed superluminal radio blobs. The energy source of these jets is widely discussed in the theoretical framework of Blandford-Znajek process, the electromagnetic energy extraction from rotating black holes (BHs), while formation mechanism of the radio blobs in the electromagnetically-dominated jets has been a long-standing problem. Recent high-resolution magnetohydrodynamic simulations of magnetically arrested disks exhibited magnetic reconnection in a transient magnetically-dominated part of the eq…
We investigate the acceleration of electrons and positrons by magnetic-field-aligned electric fields in the polar funnel of an accreting black hole (BH). Applying the pulsar outer-gap theory to BH magnetospheres, we find that such a lepton accelerator arises in the immediate vicinity of the event horizon due to frame-dragging, and that their gamma-ray luminosity increases with decreasing accretion rate. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the gamma-ray flux is enhanced along the rotation axis by more than an order of magnitude if the BH spin increases from $a=0.90M$ to $a=0.9999M$. As a result, i…
We present estimates for the number of shadow-resolved supermassive black hole (SMBH) systems that can be detected using radio interferometers, as a function of angular resolution, flux density sensitivity, and observing frequency. Accounting for the distribution of SMBHs across mass, redshift, and accretion rate, we use a new semi-analytic spectral energy distribution model to derive the number of SMBHs with detectable and optically thin horizon-scale emission. We demonstrate that (sub)millimeter interferometric observations with ${\sim}0.1$ $μ$as resolution and ${\sim}1$ $μ$Jy sensitivity co…
Low mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs) containing neutron stars are both extremely luminous and compact, emitting up to ~10^6 L_sun within a kilometer-scale boundary layer. This combination allows for easy modulation, motivating X-ray SETI. When X-ray lenses with radii 100--1,000 km magnify the LMXB boundary layer, it brightens by a factor of several thousand for a fraction of a second. In addition, there should be occultation events where the neutron star is blocked out. Passive X-ray lenses could require little internal power and the LMXB light source itself shines for millions of years, with poten…
We propose a possibility of ultrarelativistic electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational waves from binary neutron star mergers at nearly all the viewing angles. Our proposed mechanism relies on the merger-shock propagation accelerating a smaller mass in the outer parts of the neutron star crust to a larger Lorentz factor $Γ$ with smaller energy $\sim 10^{47} Γ^{-1}$ erg. This mechanism is difficult to resolve by current 3D numerical simulations. The outflows emit synchrotron flares for seconds to days by shocking the ambient medium. Ultrarelativistic flares shine at an early time and in hi…
Observational Properties of Thermal Emission from Relativistic Jets Embedded in AGN Disks
School of Astronomy and Space Science, Nanjing University（南京大学天文与空间科学学院）；Department of Astronomy, School of Physical Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China（中国科学技术大学物理学院天文学系）
Tidal Disruption Events (TDEs) can be perfect probes of dormant SMBHs in normal galaxies. During the rising phase, the accretion luminosity can increase by orders of magnitude in several weeks and the emergent ionizing radiation illuminates the fresh accretion flow. In this paper, we simulated the evolution of the expected spectral line profile of iron due to such a flare by using a ray-tracing code with effects of general relativity (GR) taken into account. We found that the time-dependent profile changes significantly with black hole spin, inclination angle with respect to the black-hole equ…
GW190521 is the compact binary with the largest masses observed to date, with at least one in the pair-instability gap. This event has also been claimed to be associated with an optical flare observed by the Zwicky Transient Facility in an Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN), possibly due to the post-merger motion of the merger remnant in the AGN gaseous disk. We show that the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) will detect up to ten of such gas-rich black hole binaries months to years before their detection by LIGO/Virgo-like interferometers, localizing them in the sky within $\approx1$ deg$^…
Stellar flares have been extensively studied in soft X-rays (SXR) by basically every X-ray mission. Hard X-ray (HXR) emission from stellar superflares, however, have only been detected from a handful of objects over the past years. One very extreme event was the superflare from the young M-dwarf DG CVn binary star system, which triggered Swift/BAT as if it was a $γ$-ray burst (GRB). In this work, we estimate the expected $γ$-ray emission from DG CVn and the most extreme stellar flares by extrapolating from solar flares based on measured solar energetic particles (SEPs), as well as thermal and …
GRMHD accretion beyond the black hole paradigm: Light from within the shadow
Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie（马克斯·普朗克射电天文研究所）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC（安达卢西亚天体物理研究所-CSIC）；Instituto de Astronomia, Geofísica e Ciências Atmosféricas, Universidade de São Paulo（圣保罗大学天文、地球物理与大气科学研究所）；International Centre for Space and Cosmology, Ahmedabad University（艾哈迈达巴德大学国际空间与宇宙学中心）
