Accretion onto the Supermassive Black Hole in M87

By T. Di Matteo, S. Allen, A. C. Fabian, A. S. Wilson, A. Young. 2002

262 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Chandra X-ray observations of the giant elliptical galaxy M87 resolve the thermal state of the hot interstellar medium into the accretion (Bondi) radius of its central 3 × 109 M☉ black hole. We measure the X-ray gas temperature and density profiles and calculate the Bondi accretion rate, Bondi ~ 0.1 M☉ yr-1. The X-ray luminosity of the active nucleus of M87 observed with Chandra is LX,0.5-7 keV ~ 7 × 1040 ergs s-1. This value is much less than the predicted nuclear luminosity, LBondi ~ 5 × 1044 ergs s-1, for accretion at the Bondi rate with a canonical accretion radiative efficiency of 10%. If the black hole in M87 accretes at this rate it must do so at a much lower radiative efficiency than the canonical value. The multiwavelength spectrum of the nucleus is consistent with that predicted by an advection-dominated flow. However, as is likely, the X-ray nucleus is dominated by jet emission then the properties of flow must be modified, possibly by outflows. We show that the overall energetics of the system are just consistent with the predicted Bondi nuclear power. This suggests that either most of the accretion energy is released in the relativistic jet or the central engine of M87 undergoes on-off activity cycles. We show that, at present, the energy dumped into the ISM by the jet may reduce the accretion rate onto the black hole by a factor ∝ (vj/cs)-2, where vj is the jet velocity and cs the ISM sound speed, and that this is sufficient to account for the low nuclear luminosity.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/e8293da9914cb56e8afdc2b9a4b2a072d2057a69

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Citations in the corpus

Superluminal Radio Features in the M87 Jet and the Site of Flaring TeV Gamma-Ray Emission (2007, background): “However, atr ∼ (3 − 10)× Rg we expect τγγ ≫ 1, since the observed luminosity of the M87 nucleus (Kharb & Shastri 2004; Whysong & Antonucci 2004) atν0 = 1013−14 Hz isL0 >∼ 3×10 40 erg s−1, consistent with ADAF approximations of the accretion disk (Di Matteo et al. 2003).”
A Fundamental plane of black hole activity (2003, unknown): “…et al. (2003); (35) Fabbiano et al. (1992); (36) Shih et al. (2003); (37) Loewenstein et al. (2001); (38)Merritt & Ferrarese (2001); (39) Di Matteo et al. (2003); (40) Giovannini et al. (1998); (41) Di Matteo et al. (2001); (42) De Rosa, Fabian & Piro (2002); (43)George et al. (2000); (44)…”
THE STRUCTURE OF THE M87 JET: A TRANSITION FROM PARABOLIC TO CONICAL STREAMLINES (2011, background): “X-ray observations reveal the ISM properties such as the Bondi radiusrB ∼ 250 pc and the King core radiusrc ≃ 1.4 kpc (see,e.g., Young et al. 2002; Di Matteo et al. 2003; Allen et al. 2006).”
The size of the jet launching region in M87 (2011, background): “Although none of our models can explain the observed radio emission, the agreement is much better if the models are fit to only the unresolved emission from the core of radio images (cf. Reynolds et al. 1996; Di Matteo et al. 2003).”
Mechanical AGN feedback: controlling the thermodynamical evolution of elliptical galaxies (2012, background): “In low-redshift systems it seems likely that massive black holes mostly accrete mass and return energy in a radiatively inefficient way (Fabian & Rees 1995; Loewenstein et al. 2001; Di Matteo et al. 2003; Taylor et al. 2006).”
Accretion of Low Angular Momentum Material onto Black Holes: Two-dimensional Magnetohydrodynamic Case (2003, background): “For example, the rate at which matter is captured by a black hole can be severely limited when the matter is heated by X-rays produced near the black hole (Ostriker et al. 1976) or by mass outflow from the central region (Di Matteo et al. 2003; Fabbiano et al. 2003).”
Thermal conduction and reduced cooling flows in galaxy clusters (2003, methodology): “† The M87 data used in this paper were taken from Di Matteo et al. (2003).”
Dynamics and high-energy emission of the flaring HST-1 knot in the M 87 jet (2006, methodology): “…to claim the presence of an analogous feature at r < 100 pc based on the available Chandra data, due to extremely complicated M 87 X-ray structure consisting of gaseous rings, voids, as well as due to strong non-thermal keV emission of the jet itself (see Di Matteo et al. 2003; Feng et al. 2004).”
Hot Gas In and Around Elliptical Galaxies (2003, background): “Central X-ray emission from Chandra observations of NGC 6166 (Di Matteo et al. 2001) and M87 (Di Matteo et al. 2003), where nuclear X-ray sources are observed, indicate η ∼ 10−4.”
Nuclear Activity in Nearby Galaxies (2008, background): “…energy from small-scale jets or collimated outflows provides a major source of “feedback” into the circumnuclear environment, perhaps to the extent that accretion can be significantly interrupted or curtailed (Binney & Tabor 1995; Di Matteo et al. 2003; Pellegrini et al. 2003a; Omma et al. 2004).”
Chaotic cold accretion on to black holes (2013, background): “…(the Bondi radius, rB = GM•/c2s,∞) is not resolved (e.g. Reynolds et al. 1996; Loewenstein et al. 2001; Churazov et al. 2002; Baganoff et al. 2003; Di Matteo et al. 2003; Di Matteo, Springel & Hernquist 2005; Springel, Di Matteo & Hernquist 2005; Allen et al. 2006; Croton et al. 2006; Hopkins,…”
Production of TeV Gamma Radiation in the Vicinity of the Supermassive Black Hole in the Giant Radio Galaxy M87 (2007, background): “The high resolution observations of the nucleus of M 87 in X-rays with the Chandra observatory provide an important information about the accretion onto the supermassive BH (Di Matteo et al. 2003).”
Hot Accretion Flows Around Black Holes (2014, background): “Early models of M87, for example, assumed that the X-ray emission is produced by the ADAF (e.g., Reynolds et al. 1996, Di Matteo et al. 2003).”
General relativistic magnetohydrodynamical simulations of the jet in M 87 (2015, background): “The X-ray luminosity of the central region (<2”) around the BH is estimated as 4− 7 × 1040 erg s−1 (Marshall et al. 2002; Di Matteo et al. 2003).”