Black Hole or MECO? Decided by a Thin Luminous Ring Structure Deep Within Quasar Q0957

Abstract

Optical, Infrared, X-ray, and radio wavelength studies of quasars are beginning to define the luminous quasar structure from techniques of reverberation and microlensing. An important result is that the inner quasar structure of the first identified gravitational lens, Q0957+561 A,B seems not to show the kind of structure expected for a supermassive black hole, but instead show a clean-swept interior region as due to the action of a magnetic propeller, just as expected for a MECO (Magnetic Eternally Collapsing Object) structure. Given the present state of the observations, the strongest model discriminant seems to be the existence of a thin luminous band around the inner edge of the accretion disc, at a distant radius ~ 70 R_g from the ~ 4 x 10^9 Mo central object. Since the existence of a clean magnetic propeller swept inner region ~70 R_g surrounded by a sharp ~ 1 R_g disc edge are the low-hard state spectral properties associated with a highly redshifted central MECO object, we are led to the conclusion that these observations imply that the Q0957 quasar contains a central supermassive MECO instead of a black hole. In this report we review the details of the observations which have compelled us to reach this conclusion.