Effects of spin on high-energy radiation from accreting black holes

Simple item page
dc.contributor.authorO'Riordan, Michael
dc.contributor.authorPe'er, Asaf
dc.contributor.authorMcKinney, Jonathan C.
dc.contributor.funderIrish Research Councilen
dc.contributor.funderSeventh Framework Programmeen
dc.contributor.funderNational Aeronautics and Space Administrationen
dc.contributor.funderNational Science Foundationen
dc.date.accessioned2016-12-02T12:43:23Z
dc.date.available2016-12-02T12:43:23Z
dc.date.issued2016-11-01
dc.date.updated2016-12-02T12:16:32Z
dc.description.abstractObservations of jets in X-ray binaries show a correlation between radio power and black hole spin. This correlation, if confirmed, points toward the idea that relativistic jets may be powered by the rotational energy of black holes. In order to examine this further, we perform general relativistic radiative transport calculations on magnetically arrested accretion flows, which are known to produce powerful jets via the Blandfordâ Znajek (BZ) mechanism. We find that the X-ray and γ-ray emission strongly depend on spin and inclination angle. Surprisingly, the high-energy power does not show the same dependence on spin as the BZ jet power, but instead can be understood as a redshift effect. In particular, photons observed perpendicular to the spin axis suffer little net redshift until originating from close to the horizon. Such observers see deeper into the hot, dense, highly magnetized inner disk region. This effect is largest for rapidly rotating black holes due to a combination of frame dragging and decreasing horizon radius. While the X-ray emission is dominated by the near horizon region, the near-infrared (NIR) radiation originates at larger radii. Therefore, the ratio of X-ray to NIR power is an observational signature of black hole spin.en
dc.description.sponsorshipIrish Research Council (Grant Number GOIPG/2013/315); NASA/NSF/TCAN (NNX14AB46G); NSF/XSEDE/TACC (TGPHY120005); NASA/Pleiades (SMD-14-5451).en
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.citationO' Riordan, M., Pe'er, A. and McKinney, J. C. (2016) ‘Effects of spin on high-energy radiation from accreting black holes’, The Astrophysical Journal, 831 (62), pp. 1-11. doi: 10.3847/0004-637X/831/1/62en
dc.identifier.doi10.3847/0004-637X/831/1/62
dc.identifier.endpage11en
dc.identifier.issn0004-637X
dc.identifier.issued62en
dc.identifier.journaltitleAstrophysical Journalen
dc.identifier.startpage1en
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/3346
dc.identifier.volume831en
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherIOP Publishingen
dc.relation.projectinfo:eu-repo/grantAgreement/EC/FP7::SP3::PEOPLE/618499/EU/Transient-Sky/TRANSIENT-SKYen
dc.rights© 2016. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.en
dc.subjectAccretionen
dc.subjectAccretion disksen
dc.subjectBlack hole physicsen
dc.subjectRadiative transferen
dc.subjectRelativistic processesen
dc.subjectX-rays: binariesen
dc.titleEffects of spin on high-energy radiation from accreting black holesen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
Files
Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
1825.pdf
Size:
796.32 KB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Description:
Published Version
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
license.txt
Size:
2.71 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download
Collections
Physics - Journal Articles