arXiv subjects

Shin Mineshige

Publications and source records attributed to Shin Mineshige.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2024

Multiwavelength Observations of the Black Hole X-ray Binary MAXI J1820$+$070 in the Rebrightening Phase

We report the results of quasi-simultaneous multiwavelength (near-infrared, optical, UV, and X-ray) observations of the Galactic X-ray black hole binary MAXI J1820+070 performed in 2019 May 10-13, $\sim 60$ days after the onset of the first rebrightening phase. It showed a much larger optical-to-X-ray luminosity ratio ($\sim 8$) than in the initial outburst epoch. The primary components of the spectral energy distribution (SED) can be best interpreted by radiatively inefficient accretion flow (RIAF) spectrum showing a luminosity peak in the optical band. By comparison with theoretical calculations, we estimate the mass accretion rate to be $\dot{M}/(8 L_{\rm Edd}/c^2) \sim 10^{-3}$, where $c$ is the light speed and $L_{\rm Edd}$ is the Eddington luminosity. In addition to the RIAF emission, a blue power-law component is detected in the optical-UV SED, which is most likely synchrotron radiation from the jet. The optical spectrum taken at the Seimei telescope shows a weak and narrow H$α$ emission line, whose emitting region is constrained to be $\gtrsim 2 \times 10^{4}$ times the gravitational radius. We suggest that the entire disk structure cannot be described by a single RIAF solution but cooler material responsible for the H$α$ emission must exist at the outermost region.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Evolution of Accretion Disk Structure of the Black Hole X-ray Binary MAXI J1820$+$070 during the Rebrightening Phase

To understand the evolution of global accretion disk structure in the ``rebrightening'' phase of MAXI J1820$+$070, we perform a comprehensive analysis of its near infrared/optical/UV to X-ray spectral energy distribution (SED) utilizing data obtained by OISTER, Las Cumbres Observatory (LCO), Swift, NICER, and NuSTAR in 2019. Optical spectra observed with Seimei telescope in 2019 and 2020 are also analyzed. On the basis of the optical and X-ray light curves and their flux ratios, we divide the whole phase into 3 periods, Periods I (flux rise), II (decay), and III (dim). In the first 2 periods, the source stayed in the low/hard state (LHS), where the X-ray (0.3--30 keV) and optical/UV SED can be both fitted with power-law models. We interpret that the X-ray emission arises from hot corona via Comptonization, whereas the optical/UV flux is dominated by synchrotron radiation from the jets, with a partial contribution from the irradiated disk. The optical/UV power-law component smoothly connects to a simultaneous radio flux, supporting its jet origin. Balmer line profiles in the optical spectra indicate that the inner radius of an irradiated disk slightly decreased from $\sim 2\times 10^5 r_{\rm g}$ (Period I) to $\sim 1\times 10^5 r_{\rm g}$ (Period II), where $r_{\rm g}$ is the gravitational radius, implying a change of the hot corona geometry. In Period III, the SED can be reproduced by an advection-dominated accretion flow and jet emission. However, the double-peaked H$α$ emission line indicates that a cool disk remained at large radii.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Survey of Non-thermal Electron around Supermassive Black Holes through Polarization Flips

Optically thick non-thermal synchrotron sources notably produce linear polarization vectors being parallel to projected magnetic field lines on the observer's screen, although they are perpendicular in well-known optically thin cases. To elucidate the complex relationship between the vectors and fields and to investigate the energy and spatial distribution of non-thermal electrons through the images, we perform polarization radiative transfer calculations at submillimeter wavelengths. Here the calculations are based on semi-analytic force-free jet models with non-thermal electrons with a power-law energy distribution. In calculated images, we find a $90^\circ$-flip of linear polarization (LP) vectors at the base of counter-side (receding) jet near a black hole, which occurs because of large optical depths for synchrotron self-absorption effect. The $90^\circ$-flip of LP vectors is also seen on the photon ring at a high frequency, since the optical depth along the rays is large there due to the light bending effect. In addition, we see the flip of the sign of circular polarization (CP) components on the counter jet and photon ring. Furthermore, we show that these polarization flips are synthesized with large values in the spectral index map, and also give rise to outstanding features in the Faraday Rotation Measure (RM) map. Since the conditions of flipping depend on the magnetic field strength and configuration and the energy distribution of electrons, we can expect that the polarization flips will provide us with an observational evidence for the presence of non-thermal electrons around the black hole, and a clue to the magnetically driving mechanism of plasma jets.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Radiation and outflow properties of super-Eddington accretion flows around various mass classes of black holes: Dependence on the accretion rates

We perform axisymmetric two-dimensional radiation-hydrodynamic simulations of super-Eddington accretion flow and outflow around black holes to examine the properties of radiation and outflow as functions of the black hole mass and the accretion rate onto the black hole ($\dot M_{\rm BH}$). We find that the $\dot{m}_{\rm BH} (\equiv \dot{M}_{\rm BH}c^2 /L_{\rm Edd})$ dependence of $L_{\rm rad}/L_{\rm Edd}$ and $L_{\rm mech}/L_{\rm Edd}$ found for stellar-mass black hole can apply to the high mass cases, where $L_{\rm rad}$ is the radiation luminosity, $L_{\rm mech}$ is the mechanical luminosity, $c$ is the speed of light, and $L_{\rm Edd}$ is the Eddington luminosity. Such universalities can appear in the regime, in which electron scattering opacity dominates over absorption opacity. Further, the normalized isotropic mechanical luminosity $L_{\rm mech}^{\rm ISO}/L_{\rm Edd}$ (evaluated by normalized density and velocity at $θ=10^\circ$) exhibits a broken power-law relationship with ${\dot m}_{\rm BH}$; $L_{\rm mech}^{\rm ISO}/ L_{\rm Edd} \propto{\dot m}_{\rm BH}^{2.7}$ (or $\propto {\dot m}_{\rm BH}^{0.7}$) below (above) ${\dot m}_{\rm BH}\sim 400$. This is because the radial velocity stays nearly constant (or even decreases) below (above) the break with increase of $\dot m_{\rm BH}$. We also find that the luminosity ratio is $L_{\rm mech}/L_{\rm rad}^{\rm ISO} \sim$ 0.05 at ${\dot m}_{\rm BH} \sim 100$, which is roughly consistent with the observations of NLS1, 1H 0323+103.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Probing the origin of the two-component structure of broad line region by reverberation mapping of an extremely variable quasar

The physical origins of quasar components, such as the broad line region (BLR) and dust torus, remain under debate. To gain insights into them, we focused on Changing-State Quasars (CSQs) which provide a unique perspective through structural changes associated with accretion disk state transitions. We targeted SDSS J125809.31+351943.0, an extremely variable CSQ, to study its central core structure and kinematics. We conducted reverberation mapping with optical spectroscopy to explore the structure of the BLR and estimate the black hole mass. The results from H$β$ reverberation mapping indicated a black hole mass of $10^{9.64^{+0.11}_{-0.20}}\rm{M_\odot}$. Additionally, we analyzed variations in the optical to X-ray spectral indices, $α_{\rm{ox}}$, before and after the state transition, to investigate the accretion disk. These variations in $α_{\rm{ox}}$ and the Eddington ratio (from 0.4 \% to 2.4 \%) exhibitied behavior similar to state transitions observed in X-ray binary systems. Spectral analysis of H$β$ revealed a predominantly double-peaked profile during dim periods, transitioning to include a single-peaked component as the quasar brightened, suggesting that H$β$ contains a mixture of two components. Each of these components has its distinct characteristics: the first is a double-peaked profile that remains stable despite changes in the accretion rate, while the second is a variable single-peaked profile. Using time lags from reverberation mapping, we estimated the spatial relationships between these BLR components, the accretion disk, and the dust torus. Our results suggest that the BLR consists of two distinct components, each differing in location and origin.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2023

Observational signatures of forming young massive clusters: continuum emission from dense HII regions

Young massive clusters (YMCs) are the most massive star clusters forming in nearby galaxies and are thought to be a young analogue to the globular clusters. Understanding the formation process of YMCs leads to looking into very efficient star formation in high-redshift galaxies suggested by recent JWST observations. We investigate possible observational signatures of their formation stage, particularly when the mass of a cluster is increasing via accretion from a natal molecular cloud. To this end, we study the broad-band continuum emission from ionized gas and dust enshrouding YMCs, whose formation is followed by recent radiation-hydrodynamics simulations. We perform post-process radiative transfer calculations using simulation snapshots and find characteristic spectral features at radio and far-infrared frequencies. We show that a striking feature is long-lasting, strong free-free emission from a $\sim$ 10pc-scale HII region with a large emission measure of $\gtrsim 10^7 \mathrm{cm}^{-6} \ \mathrm{pc}$, corresponding to the mean electron density of $\gtrsim 10^3~\mathrm{cm}^{-3}$. There is a turnover feature below $\sim$ 10 GHz, a signature of the optically-thick free-free emission, often found in Galactic ultra-compact HII regions. These features come from the peculiar YMC formation process, where the cluster's gravity effectively traps photoionized gas for a long duration and enables continuous star formation within the cluster. Such large and dense HII regions show distinct distribution on the density-size diagram, apart from the standard sequence of Galactic HII regions. This is consistent with the observational trend inferred for extragalactic HII regions associated with YMCs.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2023

Model of a `Warm Corona' as the Origin of the Soft X-ray Excess of Active Galactic Nuclei

The soft X-ray excess in the spectra of active galactic nuclei is characterized by similar electron temperatures of 0.1 -- 0.3 keV and similar photon indices around 2.2 -- 3, if fitted with inverse Comptonization. It remains a puzzle why both values are not sensitive to the black hole mass nor accretion rate. Supposing that the scattering-dominated surface layer of an accretion disk can act as a warm corona, we construct a vertically one-zone model to understand what determines its temperature By solving the equations of (1) the condition for the effective optical depth, (2) the energy balance, and (3) dominance of the Compton cooling over the bound-free cooling, we could reproduce the basic observational features of the soft excess, provided that anomalous heating (excess heating other than what is expected by local energy dissipation) takes place in the warm corona. The similar temperatures can be understood, since both of the anomalous heating and Compton cooling rates are proportional to the dissipation rate of the accretion energy, while similar photon indices are a natural consequence of the fact that observed photons are finally emitted from the layer of Compton $y\sim 1$. The soft excess is not observed in black hole binaries, since disk temperatures are too high for the Compton scattering to work as cooling. The derived temperatures are somewhat underestimation, however. This may indicate a necessity of multi-zone corona structure. The stability of the warm corona and its consequences are briefly discussed.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Diverse Polarimetric Features of AGN Jets from Various Viewing Angles: Towards a Unified View

Here, we demonstrate that polarization properties show a wide diversity depending on viewing angles. To simulate images of a supermassive black hole and surrounding plasma, we performed a full-polarimetric general relativistic radiative transfer based on three-dimensional general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics models with moderate magnetic strengths. Under an assumption of a hot-jet and cold-disk in the electron temperature prescription, we confirmed a typical scenario where polarized synchrotron emissions from the funnel jet experience Faraday rotation and conversion in the equatorial disk. Further, we found that linear polarization vectors are inevitably depolarized for edge-on-like observers, whereas a portion of vectors survive and reach the observers in face-on-like cases. We also found that circular polarization components have persistent signs in the face-on cases, and changing signs in the edge-on cases. It is confirmed that these features are smoothly connected via intermediate viewing-angle cases. These results are due to Faraday rotation/conversion for different viewing angles, and suggest that a combination of linear and circular polarimetry can give a constraint on the inclination between the observer and black hole's (and/or disk's) rotating-axis and plasma properties in the jet--disk structure. These can also lead to a more statistical and unified interpretation for a diversity of emissions from active galactic nuclei.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Large-scale outflow structure and radiation properties of super-Eddington flow: Dependence on the accretion rates

In order to precisely evaluate the impacts by super-Eddington accretors to their environments, it is essential to assure a large enough simulation box and long computational time to avoid any artefacts from numerical settings as much as possible. In this paper, we carry out axisymmetric two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic simulations around a $10~M_\odot$ black hole in large simulation boxes and study the large-scale outflow structure and radiation properties of super-Eddington accretion flow for a variety of black hole accretion rates, ${\dot M}_{\rm BH} = (110 - 380) ~L_{\rm Edd}/c^2$. The Keplerian radius of the inflow material, at which centrifugal force balances with gravitational force, is fixed to 2430 Schwarzschild radii.We find that the mechanical luminosity grows more rapidly than the radiation luminosity with an increase of ${\dot M}_{\rm BH}$. When seen from a nearly face-on direction, especially, the isotropic mechanical luminosity grows in proportion to ${\dot M}_{\rm BH}^{2.7}$, while the total mechanical luminosity is proportional to ${\dot M}_{\rm BH}^{1.7}$. The reason for the former is that the higher ${\dot M}_{\rm BH}$ is, the more vertically inflated becomes the disk surface, which makes radiation fields more confined in the region around the rotation axis, thereby strongly accelerating outflowing gas. The outflow is classified into pure outflow and failed outflow, depending whether outflowing gas can reach the outer boundary of the simulation box or not. The fraction of the failed outflow decreases with a decrease of ${\dot M}_{\rm BH}$. We analyze physical quantities along each outflow trajectory, finding that the Bernoulli parameter ($Be$) is not a good indicator to discriminate pure and failed outflows, since it is never constant because of continuous acceleration by radiation-pressure force.Pure outflow can arise, even if $Be < 0$ at the launching point.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Investigating the Disk-Jet Structure in M87 through Flux Separation in the Linear and Circular Polarization Images

For testing different electron temperature ($T_{\rm e}$) prescriptions in general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) simulations through observations, we propose to utilize linear polarization (LP) and circular polarization (CP) images. We calculate the polarization images based on a semi-Magnetically Arrested Disk (MAD) GRMHD model for various $T_{\rm e}$ parameters, bearing M87 in mind. We find an LP-CP separation in the images of the low-$T_{\rm e}$ disk cases at 230 GHz; namely, the LP flux mainly originates from downstream of the jet and the CP flux comes from the counter-side jet, while the total intensity is maximum at the jet base. This can be understood as follows: although the LP flux is generated through synchrotron emission widely around the black hole, most of the LP flux from the jet base does not reach the observer, since it undergoes Faraday rotation ($\propto T_{\rm e}^{-2}$) when passing through the outer cold disk and is thus depolarized. Hence, only the LP flux from the downstream (not passing the cold dense plasmas) can survive. Meanwhile, the CP flux is generated from the LP flux by Faraday conversion ($\propto T_{\rm e}$) in the inner hot region. Stronger CP flux is thus observed from the counter-side jet. Moreover, the LP-CP separation is more enhanced at a lower frequency such as 86 GHz but is rather weak at 43 GHz, since the media in the latter case is optically thick for synchrotron self-absorption so that all the fluxes should come from the photosphere. The same is true for cases with higher mass accretion rates and/or larger inclination angles.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

Structure of the super-Eddington outflow and itsimpact on the cosmological scale

It is one of the biggest issues in black hole (BH) astrophysics how to precisely evaluate BH feedback to its environments. Aiming at studying the unique gas dynamics of super-Eddington flow around supermassive black hole (SMBH) seeds at high redshift, we carried out axisymmetric two dimensional radiation hydrodynamic simulations by a nested simulation-box method. Here we divide the simulation box into the inner zone at $(2 - 3 \times 10^3) r_{\rm{Sch}}$ (with $r_{\rm Sch}$ being the Schwarzschild radius) and the outer zone at $(2\times 10^{3} - 3\times 10^6) r_{\rm{Sch}}$, with smooth connection of the physical quantities, such as gas density, velocity, and radiation energy. We start the calculation by injecting mass through the outer boundary of the inner zone at a constant rate of $\dot{M}_{\rm{inj}}=10^3L_{\rm{Edd}}/c^2$, where $L_{\rm{Edd}}$ is the Eddington luminosity and $c$ is the speed of light. A powerful outflow is generated in the innermost region and it propagates from the inner zone to the outer zone. The outflows are characterized by a velocity of 0.02$c$ (0.7$c$) and density of $10^{-17}$ ($10^{-19}$) g cm$^{-3}$ for near the edge-on (face-on) direction. The outflow is gradually accelerated as it travels by accepting radiation-pressure force. The final mass outflow rate at the outermost boundary is $\dot{M}_{\rm{out}}\sim 0.3 \times \dot{M}_{\rm{inj}}$. By extrapolating the outflow structure to a further larger scale, we find that the momentum and energy fluxes at $r \sim 0.1$ pc are $\sim 10-100 L_{\rm{Edd}}/c $ and $\sim 0.1-10 L_{\rm{Edd}}$, respectively. Moreover, we find that the impacts are highly anisotropic in the sense that larger impacts are given towards the face-on direction than in the edge-on direction. These results indicate that the BH feedback will more efficiently work on the interstellar medium than that assumed in the cosmological simulations.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2021

Polarization images of accretion flow around supermassive black holes: imprints of toroidal field structure

With unprecedented angular resolution, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) has opened a new era of black holes. We have previously calculated the expected polarization images of M87* with the EHT observations in mind. There, we demonstrated that circular polarization (CP) images, as well as the linear polarization (LP) maps, can convey quite useful information to us, such as the flow structure and magnetic field configuration around the black hole. In this paper, we make new predictions for the cases in which disk emission dominates over jet emission, bearing Sgr A* in mind. Here we set the proton-to-electron temperature ratio of the disk component to be Tp/Te $\sim$ 2 so as to suppress jet emission relative to emission from accretion flow. As a result, we obtain ring-like images and triple-forked images around the black hole for face-on and edge-on cases, respectively. We also find significant CP components in the images ($\gtrsim 10\%$ in fraction), both with positive and negative signs, amplified through the Faraday conversion, not sensitively depending on the inclination angles. Furthermore, we find a "separatrix" in the CP images, across which the sign of CP is reversed and on which the LP flux is brightest, that can be attributed to the helical magnetic field structure in the disk. These results indicate that future full polarization EHT images are a quite useful tracer of the magnetic field structure. We also discuss to what extent we will be able to extract information regarding the magnetic field configurations, under the scattering in the interstellar plasma, in future EHT polarimetric observations of Sgr A*.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

What Determines Unique Spectra of Super-Eddington Accretors?: Origin of Optically Thick and Low Temperature Coronae in Super-Eddington Accretion Flows

Existence of relatively cool ($k_B T \lesssim 10~{\rm keV}$) and optically thick ($τ\gtrsim 3$) coronae are inferred above super-Eddington accretion flow such as ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs), GRS 1915+105, and narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies (NLS1), which contrasts the cases in sub-Eddington accretion flows, which are associated with coronae with $k_B T \sim 100~{\rm keV}$ and $τ\sim 1$. To understand their physical origin, we investigate the emission properties of the corona which is formed by the gas blown off the super-Eddington inner disk by radiation pressure. We assume that the corona is heated by the reconnection of magnetic loops emerged from the underlying disk. We show that this radiation pressure driven wind can act as an optically thick corona which upscatters thermal soft photons from the underlying disk, and that with a reasonable parameter set we can theoretically reproduce the coronal optical depth and temperature which are inferred by spectral fittings of observational data. By contrast, the coronal optical depth cannot be so high in sub-Eddington cases, since the coronal material is supplied from the disk via evaporation and there is a maximum limit on the evaporation rate. We support that the low temperature, optically thick Comptonization should be a key signature of super-Eddington accretion flow.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Outflow from super-Eddington flow: where it originates from and how much impact it gives?

It is widely believed that super-Eddington accretion flow can produce powerful outflow, but where it originates from and how much mass and energy are carried away to which directions? To answer to these questions, we newly perform a large-box, two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamic simulation, paying special attention lest the results should depend on adopted initial and boundary conditions. We could achieve a quasi-steady state in an unprecedentedly large range, $r=2~r_{\rm S}$-$600~r_{\rm S}$ (with $r_{\rm S}$ being the Schwarzschild radius) from the black hole. The accretion rate onto the central $10 ~M_{\odot}$ black hole is $\dot{M}_{\rm BH} \sim 180 ~L_{\rm Edd}/c^{2}$, whereas the mass outflow rate is ${\dot M}_{\rm outflow} \sim 24 ~L_{\rm Edd}/c^2$ (where $L_{\rm Edd}$ and $c$ are the Eddington luminosity and the speed of light, respectively). The ratio (${\dot M}_{\rm outflow}/{\dot M}_{\rm BH} \sim 0.14$) is much less than those reported previously. By careful inspection we find that most of outflowing gas which reach the outer boundary originates from the region at $R\lesssim140~r_{\rm S}$, while gas at $140~r_{\rm S}$-$230 ~r_{\rm S}$ forms failed outflow. Therefore, significant outflow occurs inside the trapping radius $\sim 450 ~r_{\rm S}$. The mechanical energy flux (or mass flux) reaches its maximum in the direction of $\sim 15^\circ$ ($\sim 80^\circ$) from the rotation axis. The total mechanical luminosity is $L_{\rm mec}\sim 0.16~L_{\rm Edd}$, while the isotropic X-ray luminosity varies from $L_{\rm X}^{\rm ISO}\sim 2.9~L_{\rm Edd}$, (for a face-on observer) to $\sim 2.1~L_{\rm Edd}$ (for a nearly edge-on observer). The power ratio is $L_{\rm mec}/L_{\rm X}^{\rm ISO}\sim 0.05$-$0.08$, in good agreement with the observations of Ultra-Luminous X-ray sources surrounded by optical nebulae.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Factories of CO-dark gas: molecular clouds with limited star formation efficiencies by FUV feedback

The star formation in molecular clouds is inefficient. The ionizing EUV radiation ($h ν\geq 13.6$ eV) from young clusters has been considered as a primary feedback effect to limit the star formation efficiency (SFE). We here focus on effects of the stellar FUV radiation (6 eV $\leq h ν\leq$ 13.6 eV) during the cloud disruption stage. The FUV radiation may further reduce the SFE via photoelectric heating, and it also affects the chemical states of the gas that is not converted to stars ("cloud remnants") via photodissociation of molecules. We have developed a one-dimensional semi-analytic model which follows the evolution of both the thermal and chemical structure of a photodissociation region (PDR) during the dynamical expansion of an HII region. We investigate how the FUV feedback limits the SFE, supposing that the star formation is quenched in the PDR where the temperature is above a threshold value (e.g., 100K). Our model predicts that the FUV feedback contributes to reduce the SFEs for the massive ($M_{\rm cl} \gtrsim 10^5 M_{\odot}$) clouds with the low surface densities ($Σ_{\rm cl} \lesssim 100$ M$_{\odot}$pc$^{-2}$). Moreover, we show that a large part of the H$_2$ molecular gas contained in the cloud remnants should be "CO-dark" under the FUV feedback for a wide range of cloud properties. Therefore, the dispersed molecular clouds are potential factories of the CO-dark gas, which returns into the cycle of the interstellar medium.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2020

Hyper-Eddington accretion flows onto black holes accompanied by powerful outflows

We perform two-dimensional radiation hydrodynamical simulations of accretion flows onto black holes (BHs) at the nuclei of protogalaxies, and study the impact of mechanical and radiative feedback on rapid growth of BHs. The outflows deposit mass, momentum and energy into the surrounding medium and prevent mass accretion onto the BH, resulting in the reduction of radiative output. We find that when the BH is embedded in a dense gas core, ionizing radiation attenuated by inefficient BH feeding owing to mechanical feedback hardly affects the gas dynamics at the BH gravitational sphere of influence, from which intense inflows of neutral gas occur at rates substantially exceeding the Eddington limit without impeded by photoionization and heating. Since mechanical power of outflows driven by the rapidly accreting BH is sufficiently strong, bipolar outflows completely evacuate the surrounding gas in the polar region but mass inflows through the equatorial region maintain the BH accretion rate as high as $\sim 300-10^3~\dot{M}_{\rm Edd}$, which is reduced by one order of magnitude from those with radiative feedback alone. Furthermore, we find that the critical gas density required for rapid accretion is lower by a factor of $\sim 3$ nearly independently of BH mass, when mechanical feedback is considered. By studying the dependence on outflow model parameters (e.g., opening angle, mass-loading degree into outflows, velocity), we conclude that contrary to naive expectation, the existence of stronger outflow leads to the transition to rapid accretion phases more efficiently. Rapidly growing BHs inject mechanical power with $\sim 0.1-1\%$ of the radiative luminosity into their host galaxy scales, which is used for cosmological simulations.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Polarization Imaging of M87 Jets by General Relativistic Radiative Transfer Calculation based on GRMHD Simulations

The spectacular images of the M87 black hole taken by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) have opened a new era of black hole research. One of the next issues is to take polarization images around the central black hole (BH). Since radio emission is produced by synchrotron process, polarization properties should vividly reflect the magnetic field structure at the jet base and thus provide good information regarding the magnetic mechanism of jet formation. With this kept in mind we perform general relativistic (GR) radiative transfer calculations of polarized light based on the GR magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulation data of accretion flow and outflow in M87, to obtain their linear and circular polarization images in the horizon-scale. We found that the linear polarization components from the jet base and inner accretion flow should experience Faraday rotation when passing through magnetized plasmas around the BH, thus sensitively depending on the BH spin. Through the comparison with intensity image at 1.3mm by EHT and the polarized degree and the rotation measure (RM) at 1.3mm with the Submillimeter Array, the model with the spin parameter of a=0.9M_BH (with M_BH being the BH mass) is favored over other models with a=0.5M_BH or 0.99M_BH, though we need further systematic studies for confirmation. We also find in low-temperature models clear ring-like image in the circular polarization map, which arises because of Faraday conversion of the linearly polarized synchrotron emission and is thus indicative of magnetic field. This occurs only when the emission region is threaded with well-ordered magnetic fields and hence no clear images are expected in high-temperature disk models, in which disk emission is appreciable. We will be able to elucidate the field configuration through the comparison between the simulated polarization images and future polarimetry with EHT and other VLBI observations.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

Thermal-viscous instability in tilted accretion disks: a possible application to IW And-type dwarf novae

IW And stars are a subgroup of dwarf novae characterized by repetitive light variations of the intermediate-brightness state with oscillations, which is terminated by brightening. This group of dwarf novae is also known to exhibit a wide variety even within one system in long-term light curves including usual dwarf-nova outbursts, Z Cam-type standstills, and so on, besides the typical IW And-type variations mentioned above. Following the recent observations suggesting that some IW And stars seem to have tilted disks, we have investigated how the thermal-viscous instability works in tilted accretion disks in dwarf novae and whether it could reproduce the essential features of the light curves in IW And stars. By adopting various simplifying assumptions for tilted disks, we have performed time-dependent one-dimensional numerical simulations of a viscous disk by taking into account various mass supply patterns to the disk; that is, the gas stream from the secondary star flows not only to the outer edge of the disk but also to the inner portions of the disk. We find that tilted disks can achieve a new kind of accretion cycle, in which the inner disk almost always stays in the hot state while the outer disk repeats outbursts, thereby reproducing alternating mid-brightness interval sometimes with dips and brightening, which are quite reminiscent of the most characteristic observational light variations of IW And stars. Further, we have found that our simulations produce diverse light variations, depending on different mass supply patterns even without time variations in mass transfer rates. This could explain the wide variety in long-term light curves of IW And stars.

astro-ph.SR↗