arXiv · 2310.09015
Precessing jet nozzle connecting to a spinning black hole in M87
Abstract
The nearby radio galaxy M87 offers a unique opportunity to explore the connections between the central supermassive black hole and relativistic jets. Previous studies of the inner region of M87 revealed a wide opening angle for the jet originating near the black hole. The Event Horizon Telescope resolved the central radio source and found an asymmetric ring structure consistent with expectations from General Relativity. With a baseline of 17 years of observations, there was a shift in the jet's transverse position, possibly arising from an eight to ten-year quasi-periodicity. However, the origin of this sideways shift remains unclear. Here we report an analysis of radio observations over 22 years that suggests a period of about 11 years in the position angle variation of the jet. We infer that we are seeing a spinning black hole that induces the Lense-Thirring precession of a misaligned accretion disk. Similar jet precession may commonly occur in other active galactic nuclei but has been challenging to detect owing to the small magnitude and long period of the variation.
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Yuzhu Cui, Kazuhiro Hada, Tomohisa Kawashima, Motoki Kino, Weikang Lin, Yosuke Mizuno, Hyunwook Ro, Mareki Honma, Kunwoo Yi, Jintao Yu, Jongho Park, Wu Jiang, Zhiqiang Shen, Evgeniya Kravchenko, Juan-Carlos Algaba, Xiaopeng Cheng, Ilje Cho, Gabriele Giovannini, Marcello Giroletti, Taehyun Jung, Ru-Sen Lu, Kotaro Niinuma, Junghwan Oh, Ken Ohsuga, Satoko Sawada-Satoh, Bong Won Sohn, Hiroyuki R. Takahashi, Mieko Takamura, Fumie Tazaki, Sascha Trippe, Kiyoaki Wajima, Kazunori Akiyama, Tao An, Keiichi Asada, Salvatore Buttaccio, Do-Young Byun, Lang Cui, Yoshiaki Hagiwara, Tomoya Hirota, Jeffrey Hodgson, Noriyuki Kawaguchi, Jae-Young Kim, Sang-Sung Lee, Jee Won Lee, Jeong Ae Lee, Giuseppe Maccaferri, Andrea Melis, Alexey Melnikov, Carlo Migoni, Se-Jin Oh, Koichiro Sugiyama, Xuezheng Wang, Yingkang Zhang, Zhong Chen, Ju-Yeon Hwang, Dong-Kyu Jung, Hyo-Ryoung Kim, Jeong-Sook Kim, Hideyuki Kobayashi, Bin Li, Guanghui Li, Xiaofei Li, Zhiyong Liu, Qinghui Liu, Xiang Liu, Chung-Sik Oh, Tomoaki Oyama, Duk-Gyoo Roh, Jinqing Wang, Na Wang, Shiqiang Wang, Bo Xia, Hao Yan, Jae-Hwan Yeom, Yoshinori Yonekura, Jianping Yuan, Hua Zhang, Rongbing Zhao, Weiye Zhong. 2023-10-13. Precessing jet nozzle connecting to a spinning black hole in M87. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-06479-6
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