A fundamental plane of black hole accretion at millimetre wavelengths
<p>We report the discovery of the ‘mm fundamental plane of black hole accretion’, which is a tight correlation between the nuclear 1 mm luminosity (<em>L</em><sub>ν, mm</sub>), the intrinsic 2–10 keV X-ray luminosit...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal article |
| Language: | English |
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Oxford University Press
2023
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| _version_ | 1826312565785886720 |
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| author | Ruffa, I Davis, TA Elford, JS Bureau, M Cappellari, M Gensior, J Haggard, D Iguchi, S Lelli, F Liang, F-H Liu, L Sarzi, M Williams, TG Zhang, H |
| author_facet | Ruffa, I Davis, TA Elford, JS Bureau, M Cappellari, M Gensior, J Haggard, D Iguchi, S Lelli, F Liang, F-H Liu, L Sarzi, M Williams, TG Zhang, H |
| author_sort | Ruffa, I |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | <p>We report the discovery of the ‘mm fundamental plane of black hole accretion’, which is a tight correlation between the nuclear 1 mm luminosity (<em>L</em><sub>ν, mm</sub>), the intrinsic 2–10 keV X-ray luminosity (<em>L</em><sub>X, 2–10</sub>) and the supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass (<em>M</em><sub>BH</sub>) with an intrinsic scatter (σ<sub>int</sub>) of 0.40 dex. The plane is found for a sample of 48 nearby galaxies, most of which are low-luminosity active galactic nuclei. Combining these sources with a sample of high-luminosity (quasar-like) nearby AGN, we show that the plane still holds. We also find that <em>M</em><sub>BH</sub> correlates with <em>L</em><sub>ν, mm</sub> at a highly significant level, although such correlation is less tight than the mm fundamental plane (σ<sub>int</sub> = 0.51 dex). Crucially, we show that spectral energy distribution (SED) models for both advection-dominated accretion flows (ADAFs) and compact jets can explain the existence of these relations, which are not reproduced by the standard torus-thin accretion disc models usually associated to quasar-like AGN. The ADAF models reproduces the observed relations somewhat better than those for compact jets, although neither provides a perfect fit. Our findings thus suggest that radiatively inefficient accretion processes such as those in ADAFs or compact (and thus possibly young) jets may play a key role in both low- and high-luminosity AGN. This mm fundamental plane also offers a new, rapid method to (indirectly) estimate SMBH masses.</p> |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-09T03:56:08Z |
| format | Journal article |
| id | oxford-uuid:88352eaf-da7a-452b-9195-70b2f411af49 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-09T03:56:08Z |
| publishDate | 2023 |
| publisher | Oxford University Press |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | oxford-uuid:88352eaf-da7a-452b-9195-70b2f411af492024-03-15T06:40:46ZA fundamental plane of black hole accretion at millimetre wavelengthsJournal articlehttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_dcae04bcuuid:88352eaf-da7a-452b-9195-70b2f411af49EnglishSymplectic ElementsOxford University Press2023Ruffa, IDavis, TAElford, JSBureau, MCappellari, MGensior, JHaggard, DIguchi, SLelli, FLiang, F-HLiu, LSarzi, MWilliams, TGZhang, H<p>We report the discovery of the ‘mm fundamental plane of black hole accretion’, which is a tight correlation between the nuclear 1 mm luminosity (<em>L</em><sub>ν, mm</sub>), the intrinsic 2–10 keV X-ray luminosity (<em>L</em><sub>X, 2–10</sub>) and the supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass (<em>M</em><sub>BH</sub>) with an intrinsic scatter (σ<sub>int</sub>) of 0.40 dex. The plane is found for a sample of 48 nearby galaxies, most of which are low-luminosity active galactic nuclei. Combining these sources with a sample of high-luminosity (quasar-like) nearby AGN, we show that the plane still holds. We also find that <em>M</em><sub>BH</sub> correlates with <em>L</em><sub>ν, mm</sub> at a highly significant level, although such correlation is less tight than the mm fundamental plane (σ<sub>int</sub> = 0.51 dex). Crucially, we show that spectral energy distribution (SED) models for both advection-dominated accretion flows (ADAFs) and compact jets can explain the existence of these relations, which are not reproduced by the standard torus-thin accretion disc models usually associated to quasar-like AGN. The ADAF models reproduces the observed relations somewhat better than those for compact jets, although neither provides a perfect fit. Our findings thus suggest that radiatively inefficient accretion processes such as those in ADAFs or compact (and thus possibly young) jets may play a key role in both low- and high-luminosity AGN. This mm fundamental plane also offers a new, rapid method to (indirectly) estimate SMBH masses.</p> |
| spellingShingle | Ruffa, I Davis, TA Elford, JS Bureau, M Cappellari, M Gensior, J Haggard, D Iguchi, S Lelli, F Liang, F-H Liu, L Sarzi, M Williams, TG Zhang, H A fundamental plane of black hole accretion at millimetre wavelengths |
| title | A fundamental plane of black hole accretion at millimetre wavelengths |
| title_full | A fundamental plane of black hole accretion at millimetre wavelengths |
| title_fullStr | A fundamental plane of black hole accretion at millimetre wavelengths |
| title_full_unstemmed | A fundamental plane of black hole accretion at millimetre wavelengths |
| title_short | A fundamental plane of black hole accretion at millimetre wavelengths |
| title_sort | fundamental plane of black hole accretion at millimetre wavelengths |
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