arXiv subjects

Mitchell Begelman

Publications and source records attributed to Mitchell Begelman.

11 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Persistence of the Millihertz X-ray Quasi-Periodic Oscillation in the Active Galactic Nucleus 1ES 1927+654

1ES 1927+654 is an extreme active galactic nucleus (AGN) that has defied our canonical expectations for how AGN appear across the electromagnetic spectrum and how they vary on short timescales. In 2022, this source began showing a X-ray quasi-periodic oscillation (QPO) at mHz frequencies, along with a newly launched radio jet. Unlike the handful of other known AGN QPOs, the QPO in 1ES 1927+654 showed a significant frequency evolution, spanning from 0.9-2.4 mHz from 2022-2024. In this work, we present the last 1.5 years of monitoring with XMM-Newton (250 ks) up to January 2026, which reveals that the QPO persists but has plateaued at a constant frequency of approximately 2.5 mHz. We perform detailed spectral-timing analyses on this exquisite dataset, consisting of over 900 QPO cycles, more than any AGN QPO to date. Our main findings are: (1) the stacked XMM-Newton power spectra shows no significant second harmonic, (2) a soft (reverberation-like) lag is observed at all frequencies and remains remarkably stable even as the QPO frequency evolved from 2022-2024, and (3) extreme X-ray jumps on the QPO period (up to ~80% baseline flux) persist to present day with a remarkably stable dip-rise-fall pattern. Finally, we also detect the first AGN QPO in NuSTAR observations, which is present from 2023 to 2026 at frequencies consistent with the XMM-Newton detections. While we explore models for eclipses and coupled disk-corona behavior to simultaneously explain the lags, dips, and QPO, these new observations strain such models.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

The Growth of the Central Black Holes in Quasi-stars

Observations by JWST have confirmed the presence of supermassive black holes (BHs) at redshifts $z\gtrsim10$, lending support to scenarios in which BHs experience rapid growth through intense gas accretion. Here we investigate the growth of a BH embedded at the center of a quasi-star, a theoretically predicted object formed via direct collapse. In a quasi-star, the central BH accretes at a highly super-Eddington rate, while the excess energy is transported outward by convection and radiated at approximately the Eddington luminosity of the entire star. We employ the open-source stellar evolution code \texttt{MESA} to construct quasi-star models and follow the time-dependent growth of the central BH under different prescriptions for the accretion rate at the inner boundary $R_i$, and further considering the effect of winds. For the case $R_i=NR_{\rm B}$, where $N$ is a constant and $R_{\rm B}$ is the Bondi radius corresponding to the mass of the BH and the gas infalling onto it, our models terminate when the BH mass reaches a critical value $M_{\mathrm{crit}}(N)=c_{s,i}^3/(12\sqrt{N^3G^3\pi\rho_i})$ (where $c_{s,i}$ and $\rho_i$ are the sound speed and density at $R_i$, respectively), a limit we also derive analytically. Models that feature an inner convective region matched to an outer adiabatic envelope exhibit BH growth up to approximately $M_{\mathrm{BH}}/M_\star\simeq 0.33$, largely independent of the stellar mass $M_\star$ itself. This ratio is approximately preserved even in the presence of mass loss, as several properties of the model are independent of the quasi-star's total mass.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2024

Which came first: supermassive black holes or galaxies? Insights from JWST

Insights from JWST observations suggest that AGN feedback evolved from a short-lived, high redshift phase in which radiatively cooled turbulence and/or momentum-conserving outflows stimulated vigorous early star formation (``positive'' feedback), to late, energy-conserving outflows that depleted halo gas reservoirs and quenched star formation. The transition between these two regimes occurred at $z\sim 6$, independently of galaxy mass, for simple assumptions about the outflows and star formation process. Observational predictions provide circumstantial evidence for the prevalence of massive black holes at the highest redshifts hitherto observed, and we discuss their origins.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

Kinetic Simulations of Imbalanced Turbulence in a Relativistic Plasma: Net Flow and Particle Acceleration

Turbulent high-energy astrophysical systems often feature asymmetric energy injection: for instance, Alfven waves propagating from an accretion disk into its corona. Such systems are "imbalanced": the energy fluxes parallel and anti-parallel to the large-scale magnetic field are unequal. In the past, numerical studies of imbalanced turbulence have focused on the magnetohydrodynamic regime. In the present study, we investigate externally-driven imbalanced turbulence in a collisionless, ultrarelativistically hot, magnetized pair plasma using three-dimensional particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations. We find that the injected electromagnetic momentum efficiently converts into plasma momentum, resulting in net motion along the background magnetic field with speeds up to a significant fraction of lightspeed. This discovery has important implications for the launching of accretion disk winds. We also find that although particle acceleration in imbalanced turbulence operates on a slower timescale than in balanced turbulence, it ultimately produces a power-law energy distribution similar to balanced turbulence. Our results have ramifications for black hole accretion disk coronae, winds, and jets.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

Astro2020 Science White Paper: Using X-Ray Polarimetry to Probe the Physics of Black Holes and Neutron Stars

This white paper highlights compact object and fundamental physics science opportunities afforded by high-throughput broadband (0.1-60 keV) X-ray polarization observations. X-ray polarimetry gives new observables with geometric information about stellar remnants which are many orders of magnitude too small for direct imaging. The X-ray polarimetric data also reveal details about the emission mechanisms and the structure of the magnetic fields in and around the most extreme objects in the Universe. Whereas the Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE) to be launched in 2021 will obtain first results for bright objects, a follow-up mission could be one order of magnitude more sensitive and would be able to use a broader bandpass to perform physics type experiments for representative samples of sources.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

Direct Collapse to Supermassive Black Hole Seeds with Radiative Transfer: Isolated Halos

Direct collapse within dark matter (DM) halos is a promising path to form supermassive black hole (SMBH) seeds at high redshifts. The outer part of this collapse remains optically thin, and has been studied intensively using numerical simulations. However, the innermost region of the collapse is expected to become optically thick and requires us to follow the radiation field in order to understand its subsequent evolution. So far, the adiabatic approximation has been used exclusively for this purpose. We apply radiative transfer in the flux-limited diffusion (FLD) approximation to solve the evolution of coupled gas and radiation, for isolated halos. For direct collapse within isolated DM halos, we find that (1) the photosphere forms at ~10^{-6} pc and rapidly expands outward. (2) A central core forms, with a mass of ~1 Mo, supported by thermal gas pressure gradients and rotation. (3) Growing thermal gas and radiation pressure gradients dissolve it. (4) This process is associated with a strong anisotropic outflow, and another core forms nearby and grows rapidly. (5) Typical radiation luminosity emerging from the photosphere encompassing these cores is ~5 x 10^{37}-5 x 10^{38} erg/s, of order the Eddington luminosity. (6) Two variability timescales are associated with this process: a long one, which is related to the accretion flow within the central ~10^{-4}-10^{-3} pc, and ~0.1 yr, which is related to radiation diffusion. (7) Adiabatic models have been run for comparison and their evolution differs profoundly from that of the FLD models, by forming a central geometrically-thick disk. Overall, an adiabatic equation of state is not a good approximation to the advanced stage of direct collapse, mainly because the radiation in the FLD is capable of escaping due to anisotropy in the optical depth and associated gradients.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2009

Polarization signature of gamma-ray bursts from fragmented fireballs

We study the polarization properties of the prompt emission of gamma-ray bursts produced by fragmented fireballs. Such fireballs, known in the literature under various names, are made by the superposition of many individual blobs, each of which produces a spike in the light curve. The differences between pulses are due both to the intrinsic diversity in the blobs' properties and to their orientation with respect to the line of sight. We show that the peak flux and the polarization of each pulse are connected through the orientation of the blob that produces the pulse, while the position angle fluctuates randomly from one pulse to the next and is constant within an individual pulse. The most polarized pulses are those with approximately one tenth the peak flux of the brightest pulse. These conclusions do not depend on the assumed radiation mechanism nor on the energy and Lorentz factor of the blobs. We compare the prediction of this model to a simulated set of observations, showing that a limited sample of GRBs with time-resolved polarization measurements would provide a crucial test for this model. We finally show that a hint of the predicted correlation may have been already observed.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2009

Angular Momentum Transfer and Lack of Fragmentation in Self-Gravitating Accretion Flows

Rapid inflows associated with early galaxy formation lead to the accumulation of self-gravitating gas in the centers of proto-galaxies. Such gas accumulations are prone to non-axisymmetric instabilities, as in the well-known Maclaurin sequence of rotating ellipsoids, which are accompanied by a catastrophic loss of angular momentum (J). Self-gravitating gas is also intuitively associated with star formation. However, recent simulations of the infall process display highly turbulent continuous flows. We propose that J-transfer, which enables the inflow, also suppresses fragmentation. Inefficient J loss by the gas leads to decay of turbulence, triggering global instabilities and renewed turbulence driving. Flow regulated in this way is stable against fragmentation, whilst staying close to the instability threshold for bar formation -- thick self-gravitating disks are prone to global instabilities before they become unstable locally. On smaller scales, the fraction of gravitationally unstable matter swept up by shocks in such a flow is a small and decreasing function of the Mach number. We conclude counterintuitively that gas able to cool down to a small fraction of its virial temperature will not fragment as it collapses. This provides a venue for supermassive black holes to form via direct infall, without the intermediary stage of forming a star cluster. Some black holes could have formed or grown in massive halos at low redshifts. Thus the fragmentation is intimately related to J redistribution within the system: it is less dependent on the molecular and metal cooling but is conditioned by the ability of the flow to develop virial, supersonic turbulence.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2005

Universal GRB jets from jet-cocoon interaction in massive stars

We consider the time-dependent evolution of a relativistic jet following its breakout through the surface of a massive compact star, as envisaged in the collapsar model of gamma-ray bursts. At breakout, the jet is tightly collimated by the pressure of its hot cocoon, which is created as the jet traverses the star. After breakout, the cocoon pressure drops and the jet expands toward its natural opening angle. We show that the evolving opening angle of the jet produces a stratification of the total energy with the off-axis angle, resulting in a universal morphology. The angular structure is largely independent of the initial beam pattern and depends only on the luminosity of the central engine. With the minimal assumption of a constant energy release we reproduce the theta^{-2} profile required to explain observations of afterglows.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2002

Hiding in Plain Sight: Chandra Observations of the Quiescent Neutron Star 4U 2129+47 in Eclipse

During a previous outburst phase, the neutron star 4U 2129+47 exhibited evidence for a spatially extended corona via broad, partial X-ray eclipses occurring periodically on the 5.24 hr orbit. Since 1983, however, 4U 2129+47 has entered a quiescent state several orders of magnitude fainter. We have performed a 37 ksec Chandra observation of 4U 2129+47 to determine whether an extended coronal structure also exists in quiescence. Total eclipses are found, and the rapidity of the eclipse ingress and egress are used to place upper limits on the size of the X-ray source. The spectrum is comprised of a soft component plus a fairly hard power law tail. The former is seen to be sinusoidally modulated over the orbital period in a manner consistent with neutral column variations, possibly due to the interaction of an accretion stream with a (small) disk about the neutron star. We fit realistic atmosphere models to the soft spectra, and comment on the consistency of the spectra with cooling neutron star models. It has been suggested that the 4U 2129+47 system is a hierarchical triple, with the outer body being an F star. We use differential astrometry to show that the X-ray point source and F star are spatially coincident to within 0.1". We further compare newly determined upper limits for the extrinsic neutral column to the reddening of the F star. Finally, we discuss how future X-ray observations can further constrain models of quiescent neutron star emission, as well as directly verify the triple hypothesis.

astro-ph↗

arXiv1997

Variability, Power, and Pair Content of AGN Jets

Simultaneous observations of blazars in different spectral regimes imply that the amplitude of variability depends on the observational band. Both in the low energy spectral component and in the high energy spectral component, the amplitude increases with the photon energy. We show that such behavior can be explained in terms of a two-component model, where the spectra observed during flares are superpositions of spectra arising from at least two distinct, spatially separated sources. Using the two-component model for blazar variability we derive constraints on jet physics in quasars. Particularly, we demonstrate that if production of X-rays during rapid flares is dominated by Comptonization of external radiation, then the upper limits for the total power of jets imply that the jet plasma is strongly dominated by pairs.

astro-ph↗