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All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2007

Gravitational Waves from Black Hole Mergers

The final merger of two black holes is expected to be the strongest gravitational wave source for ground-based interferometers such as LIGO, VIRGO, and GEO600, as well as the space-based interferometer LISA. Observing these sources with gravitational wave detectors requires that we know the radiation waveforms they emit. Since these mergers take place in regions of extreme gravity, we need to solve Einstein's equations of general relativity on a computer in order to calculate these waveforms. For more than 30 years, scientists have tried to compute black hole mergers using the methods of numerical relativity. The resulting computer codes have been plagued by instabilities, causing them to crash well before the black holes in the binary could complete even a single orbit. Within the past few years, however, this situation has changed dramatically, with a series of remarkable breakthroughs. This talk will focus on new simulations that are revealing the dynamics and waveforms of binary black hole mergers, and their applications in gravitational wave detection, data analysis, and astrophysics.

Centrella, Joan↗
DOE OSTI2017

Shining Light on Quantum Gravity with Pulsar–Black hole Binaries

Pulsars are some of the most accurate clocks found in nature, while black holes offer a unique arena for the study of quantum gravity. As such, pulsar–black hole (PSR–BH) binaries provide ideal astrophysical systems for detecting the effects of quantum gravity. With the success of aLIGO and the advent of instruments like SKA and eLISA, the prospects for the discovery of such PSR–BH binaries are very promising. We argue that PSR–BH binaries can serve as ready-made testing grounds for proposed resolutions to the black hole information paradox. We propose using timing signals from a pulsar beam passing through the region near a black hole event horizon as a probe of quantum gravitational effects. In particular, we demonstrate that fluctuations of the geometry outside a black hole lead to an increase in the measured root mean square deviation of the arrival times of pulsar pulses traveling near the horizon. This allows for a clear observational test of the nonviolent nonlocality proposal for black hole information escape. For a series of pulses traversing the near-horizon region, this model predicts an rms in pulse arrival times of ∼30 μs for a 3M{sub ⊙} black hole, ∼0.3 ms for a 30M{sub ⊙} black hole, and ∼40 s for Sgr A*. The current precision of pulse time-of-arrival measurements is sufficient to discern these rms fluctuations. This work is intended to motivate observational searches for PSR–BH systems as a means of testing models of quantum gravity.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Spectral line broadening in magnetized black holes

We consider weakly magnetized non-rotating black holes. In the presence of a regular magnetic field the motion of charged particles in the vicinity of a black hole is modified. As a result, the position of the innermost stable circular orbit (ISCO) becomes closer to the horizon. When the Lorentz force is repulsive (directed from the black hole) the ISCO radius can reach the gravitational radius. In the process of accretion charged particles (ions) of the accreting matter can be accumulated near their ISCO, while neutral particles fall down to the black hole after they reach 6M radius. The sharp spectral line Fe α, emitted by iron ions at such orbits, is broadened when the emission is registered by a distant observer. In this paper we study this broadening effect and discuss how one can extract information concerning the strength of the magnetic field from the observed spectrum.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2011

STELLAR-MASS BLACK HOLES IN YOUNG GALAXIES

We explore the potential cumulative energy production of stellar-mass black holes in early galaxies. Stellar-mass black holes may accrete substantially from the higher density interstellar media (ISMs) of primordial galaxies, and their energy release would be distributed more uniformly over the galaxies, perhaps providing a different mode of energy feedback into young galaxies than central supermassive black holes. We construct a model for the production and growth of stellar-mass black holes over the first few gigayears of a young galaxy. With the simplifying assumption of a constant density of the ISM, n {approx} 10{sup 4}-10{sup 5} cm{sup -3}, we estimate the number of accreting stellar-mass black holes to be {approx}10{sup 6} and the potential energy production to be as high as 10{sup 61} erg over several billion years. For densities less than 10{sup 5} cm{sup -3}, stellar-mass black holes are unlikely to reach their Eddington limit luminosities. The framework we present could be incorporated in numerical simulations to compute the feedback from stellar-mass black holes with inhomogeneous, evolving ISMs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

ON THE ROLE OF THE ACCRETION DISK IN BLACK HOLE DISK-JET CONNECTIONS

Models of jet production in black hole systems suggest that the properties of the accretion disk-such as its mass accretion rate, inner radius, and emergent magnetic field-should drive and modulate the production of relativistic jets. Stellar-mass black holes in the 'low/hard' state are an excellent laboratory in which to study disk-jet connections, but few coordinated observations are made using spectrometers that can incisively probe the inner disk. We report on a series of 20 Suzaku observations of Cygnus X-1 made in the jet-producing low/hard state. Contemporaneous radio monitoring was done using the Arcminute MicroKelvin Array radio telescope. Two important and simple results are obtained: (1) the jet (as traced by radio flux) does not appear to be modulated by changes in the inner radius of the accretion disk and (2) the jet is sensitive to disk properties, including its flux, temperature, and ionization. Some more complex results may reveal aspects of a coupled disk-corona-jet system. A positive correlation between the reflected X-ray flux and radio flux may represent specific support for a plasma ejection model of the corona, wherein the base of a jet produces hard X-ray emission. Within the framework of the plasma ejection model, the spectra suggest a jet base with v/c {approx_equal} 0.3 or the escape velocity for a vertical height of z {approx_equal} 20 GM/c {sup 2} above the black hole. The detailed results of X-ray disk continuum and reflection modeling also suggest a height of z {approx_equal} 20 GM/c {sup 2} for hard X-ray production above a black hole, with a spin in the range 0.6 {<=} a {<=} 0.99. This height agrees with X-ray time lags recently found in Cygnus X-1. The overall picture that emerges from this study is broadly consistent with some jet-focused models for black hole spectral energy distributions in which a relativistic plasma is accelerated at z = 10-100 GM/c {sup 2}. We discuss these results in the context of disk-jet connections across the black hole mass scale.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2021

Quasinormal modes for non-minimally coupled scalar fields in regular black hole spacetimes: Grey-body factors, area spectrum and shadow radius

Black hole perturbation theory is a useful approach to study interactions between black holes and fundamental fields. A particular class of black hole solutions arising out of modification of Einstein’s general theory of relativity are regular black holes (RBHs) which can be constructed using a nonlinear electrodynamic Lagrangian. Because of their importance, we are interested in studying the behavior of three kinds of such RBHs under perturbations generated by an external field. Indeed, we investigate the quasinormal modes (QNMs) of a massive scalar field propagating near the RBHs which is non-minimally coupled to the Ricci scalar-tensor of background geometry. We will attempt to find the low-lying quasinormal frequencies of the perturbations by using WKB approximation. We shall also study the relationship between the QNMs and some characteristic properties of black holes such as grey-body factors, area quantization, and shadow radius.

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS, GENERAL PHYSIC↗
NASA NTRS2001

Black Hole Event Horizons and Advection-Dominated Accretion

The XMM data on black-hole X-ray novae are only now becoming available and they have so far not been included in any publications. This work is part of a larger project that makes use of both XMM and Chandra data. Our first publication on the Chandra results is the following: "New Evidence for Black Hole Event Horizons from Chandra" by M.R. Garcia, J.E. McClintock, R. Narayan, P. Callanan, D. Barret and S. Murray (2001, ApJ, 553, L47). Therein we present the luminosities of the two black-hole X-ray novae, GRO J0422+22 and 4U1 543-47, which were observed by Chandra. These results are combined with the luminosities of four additional black-hole X-ray novae, which were observed as part of a Chandra GTO program (PI: S. Murray). The very low, but nonzero, quiescent X-ray luminosities of these black hole binaries is very difficult to understand in the context of standard viscous accretion disk theory. The principal result of this work is that X-ray novae that contain black hole primaries are about 100 times fainter that X-ray novae that contain neutron star primaries. This result had been suggested in earlier work, but the present work very firmly establishes this large luminosity difference. The result is remarkable because the black-hole and the neutron-star systems are believed to be similar in many respects. Most importantly, the mass transfer rate from the secondary star is believed to be very comparable for the two kinds of systems for similar orbital periods. The advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF) model provides a natural framework for understanding the extraordinarily low luminosities of the black hole systems and the hundred-fold greater luminosities of the neutron star systems. The chief feature of an ADAF is that the heat energy in the accreting gas is trapped in the gas and travels with it, rather than being radiated promptly. Thus the accreting gas reaches the central object with a huge amount of thermal energy. If the accretor is a black hole, the thermal energy will disappear through the event horizon, and the object will be very dim. On the other hand, if the central object is a neutron star or any other object with a surface, then the energy will be radiated from the surface, and the object will be bright.

McClintock, Jeffrey↗
DOE OSTI2025

Neutrino and pair creation in reconnection-powered coronae of accreting black holes

A ubiquitous feature of accreting black hole systems is their hard X-ray emission which is thought to be produced through Comptonization of soft photons by electrons and positrons in the vicinity of the black hole, in a region with optical depth of order unity. The origin and composition of this Comptonizing region, known as the corona, is a matter open for debate. In this paper we investigate the role of relativistic protons accelerated in black-hole magnetospheric current sheets for the pair enrichment and neutrino emission of AGN coronae. Our model has two free parameters, namely the proton plasma magnetization σ p , which controls the peak energy of the neutrino spectrum, and the Eddington ratio λ X,Edd (defined as the ratio between X-ray luminosity L X and Eddington luminosity L Edd ), which controls the amount of energy transferred to secondary particles. For sources with λ X,Edd ≳ λ Edd,crit (where λ Edd,crit ∼ 10 -1 for σ p = 10 5 or ∼ 10 -2 for σ p = 10 7 ), proton-photon interactions and γγ annihilation produce enough secondary pairs to achieve Thomson optical depths τ T ∼ 0.1-10. In the opposite case of λ X,Edd ≲ λ Edd,crit , the coronal pairs cannot originate only from hadronic interactions. Additionally, we find that the neutrino luminosity scales as L 2 X /L Edd for λ X,Edd ≲ λ Edd,crit , while it is proportional to L X for higher λ X,Edd values. We apply our model to four Seyfert galaxies, including NGC 1068, and discuss our results in light of recent IceCube observations.

active galactic nuclei↗
DOE OSTI2012

FORCE-FEEDING BLACK HOLES

We propose that the growth of supermassive black holes is associated mainly with brief episodes of highly super-Eddington infall of gas ({sup h}yperaccretion{sup )}. This gas is not swallowed in real time, but forms an envelope of matter around the black hole that can be swallowed gradually, over a much longer timescale. However, only a small fraction of the black hole mass can be stored in the envelope at any one time. We argue that any infalling matter above a few percent of the hole's mass is ejected as a result of the plunge in opacity at temperatures below a few thousand degrees kelvin, corresponding to the Hayashi track. The speed of ejection of this matter, compared to the velocity dispersion {sigma} of the host galaxy's core, determines whether the ejected matter is lost forever or returns eventually to rejoin the envelope, from which it can be ultimately accreted. The threshold between matter recycling and permanent loss defines a relationship between the maximum black hole mass and {sigma} that resembles the empirical M{sub BH}-{sigma} relation.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2005

GRAVITATIONAL WAVE EXTRACTION FROM AN INSPIRALING CONFIGURATION OF MERGING BLACK HOLES

We present new techniques for evolving binary black hole systems which allow the accurate determination of gravitational waveforms directly from the wave zone region of the numerical simulations. Rather than excising the black hole interiors, our approach follows the "puncture" treatment of black holes, but utilizing a new gauge condition which allows the black holes to move successfully through the computational domain. We apply these techniques to an inspiraling binary, modeling the radiation generated during the final plunge and ringdown. We demonstrate convergence of the waveforms and and good conservation of mass-energy, with just over 3% of the system s mass converted to gravitational radiation.

Baker, John G.↗
DOE OSTI2014

Effective field theory models for nonviolent information transfer from black holes

Transfer of quantum information from the interior of a black hole to its atmosphere is described, in models based on effective field theory. This description illustrates that such transfer need not be violent to the semiclassical geometry or to infalling observers, and in particular can avoid producing a singular horizon or “firewall”. One can specifically quantify the rate of information transfer and show that a rate necessary to unitarize black hole evaporation produces a relatively mild modification to the stress tensor near the horizon. In an exterior description of the transfer, the new interactions responsible for it are approximated by “effective sources” acting on fields in the black hole atmosphere. If the necessary interactions couple to general modes in the black hole atmosphere, one also finds a straightforward mechanism for information transfer rates to increase when a black hole is mined, avoiding paradoxical behavior. Finally, correspondence limits are discussed, in the presence of such new interactions, for both small black holes and large ones; the near-horizon description of the latter is approximately that of Rindler space.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

A population of relic intermediate-mass black holes in the halo of the Milky Way

If 'seed' central black holes were common in the subgalactic building blocks that merged to form present-day massive galaxies, then relic intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) should be present in the Galactic bulge and halo. We use a particle tagging technique to dynamically populate the N-body Via Lactea II high-resolution simulation with black holes, and assess the size, properties, and detectability of the leftover population. The method assigns a black hole to the most tightly bound central particle of each subhalo at infall according to an extrapolation of the M {sub BH}-σ{sub *} relation, and self-consistently follows the accretion and disruption of Milky Way progenitor dwarfs and their holes in a cosmological 'live' host from high redshift to today. We show that, depending on the minimum stellar velocity dispersion, σ {sub m}, below which central black holes are assumed to be increasingly rare, as many as ∼2000 (σ {sub m} = 3 km s{sup –1}) or as few as ∼70 (σ {sub m} = 12 km s{sup –1}) IMBHs may be left wandering in the halo of the Milky Way today. The fraction of IMBHs forced from their hosts by gravitational recoil is ≲ 20%. We identify two main Galactic subpopulations, 'naked' IMBHs, whose host subhalos were totally destroyed after infall, and 'clothed' IMBHs residing in dark matter satellites that survived tidal stripping. Naked IMBHs typically constitute 40%-50% of the total and are more centrally concentrated. We show that, in the σ {sub m} = 12 km s{sup –1} scenario, the clusters of tightly bound stars that should accompany naked IMBHs would be fainter than m{sub V} = 16 mag, spatially resolvable, and have proper motions of 0.1-10 mas yr{sup –1}. Their detection may provide an observational tool to constrain the formation history of massive black holes in the early universe.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2025

On Finding Black Holes in Photometric Microlensing Surveys

There are expected to be millions of isolated black holes in the galaxy resulting from the deaths of massive stars. Measuring the abundance and properties of this remnant population would shed light on the end stages of stellar evolution and the evolution paths of black hole systems. Detecting isolated black holes is currently only possible via gravitational microlensing, which has so far yielded one definitive detection. The difficulty in finding microlensing black holes lies in having to choose a small subset of events, based on characteristics of their light curves, to allocate expensive and scarce follow-up resources to confirm the identity of the lens. Current methods either rely on simple cuts in parameter space without using the full distribution information or are only effective on small subsets of events. In this paper, we present a new lens classification method. The classifier takes in posterior constraints on light-curve parameters and combines them with a Galactic simulation to estimate the lens class probability. This method is flexible and can be used with any set of microlensing light-curve parameters, making it applicable to large samples of events. We make this classification framework available via the popclass Python package. We apply the classifier to ~10,000 microlensing events from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment survey and find 23 high-probability black hole candidates. Our classifier also suggests that the only known isolated black hole is an observational outlier, according to current Galactic models, and the allocation of astrometric follow-up on this event was a high-risk strategy.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

A GENERAL RELATIVISTIC NULL HYPOTHESIS TEST WITH EVENT HORIZON TELESCOPE OBSERVATIONS OF THE BLACK HOLE SHADOW IN Sgr A*

The half opening angle of a Kerr black hole shadow is always equal to (5 ± 0.2)GM/Dc{sup 2}, where M is the mass of the black hole and D is its distance from the Earth. Therefore, measuring the size of a shadow and verifying whether it is within this 4% range constitutes a null hypothesis test of general relativity. We show that the black hole in the center of the Milky Way, Sgr A*, is the optimal target for performing this test with upcoming observations using the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). We use the results of optical/IR monitoring of stellar orbits to show that the mass-to-distance ratio for Sgr A* is already known to an accuracy of ∼4%. We investigate our prior knowledge of the properties of the scattering screen between Sgr A* and the Earth, the effects of which will need to be corrected for in order for the black hole shadow to appear sharp against the background emission. Finally, we explore an edge detection scheme for interferometric data and a pattern matching algorithm based on the Hough/Radon transform and demonstrate that the shadow of the black hole at 1.3 mm can be localized, in principle, to within ∼9%. All these results suggest that our prior knowledge of the properties of the black hole, of scattering broadening, and of the accretion flow can only limit this general relativistic null hypothesis test with EHT observations of Sgr A* to ≲10%.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2012

Merging Black Holes

The final merger of two black holes is expected to be the strongest source of gravitational waves for both ground-based detectors such as LIGO and VIRGO, as well as future. space-based detectors. Since the merger takes place in the regime of strong dynamical gravity, computing the resulting gravitational waveforms requires solving the full Einstein equations of general relativity on a computer. For many years, numerical codes designed to simulate black hole mergers were plagued by a host of instabilities. However, recent breakthroughs have conquered these instabilities and opened up this field dramatically. This talk will focus on.the resulting 'gold rush' of new results that is revealing the dynamics and waveforms of binary black hole mergers, and their applications in gravitational wave detection, testing general relativity, and astrophysics

Centrella, Joan↗
NASA NTRS2010

Merging Black Holes

The final merger of two black holes is expected to be the strongest source of gravitational waves for both ground-based detectors such as LIGO and VIRGO, as well as the space-based LISA. Since the merger takes place in the regime of strong dynamical gravity, computing the resulting gravitational waveforms requires solving the full Einstein equations of general relativity on a computer. For many years, numerical codes designed to simulate black hole mergers were plagued by a host of instabilities. However, recent breakthroughs have conquered these instabilities and opened up this field dramatically. This talk will focus on the resulting gold rush of new results that are revealing the dynamics and waveforms of binary black hole mergers, and their applications in gravitational wave detection, testing general relativity, and astrophysics.

Centrella, Joan↗
NASA NTRS2010

Merging Black Holes

The final merger of two black holes is expected to be the strongest source of gravitational waves for both ground-based detectors such as LIGO and VIRGO, as well as the space-based LISA. Since the merger takes place in the regime of strong dynamical gravity, computing the resulting gravitational waveforms requires solving the full Einstein equations of general relativity on a computer. For many years, numerical codes designed to simulate black hole mergers were plagued by a host of instabilities. However, recent breakthroughs have conquered these instabilities and opened up this field dramatically. This talk will focus on the resulting gold rush of new results that are revealing the dynamics and waveforms of binary black hole mergers, and their applications in gravitational wove detection, testing general relativity, and astrophysics.

Centrella, Joan↗
DOE OSTI2013

DISCOVERY OF AN H{alpha} EMITTING DISK AROUND THE SUPERMASSIVE BLACK HOLE OF M31

Due to its proximity, the mass of the supermassive black hole in the nucleus of the Andromeda galaxy (M31), the most massive black hole in the Local Group of galaxies, has been measured by several methods involving the kinematics of a stellar disk which surrounds it. We report here the discovery of an eccentric H{alpha} emitting disk around the black hole at the center of M31 and show how modeling this disk can provide an independent determination of the mass of the black hole. Our model implies a mass of 5.0{sup +0.8}{sub -1.0} Multiplication-Sign 10{sup 7} M{sub Sun} for the central black hole, consistent with the average of determinations by methods involving stellar dynamics, and compatible (at 1{sigma} level) with measurements obtained from the most detailed models of the stellar disk around the central black hole. This value is also consistent with the M-{sigma} relation. In order to make a comparison, we applied our simulation on the stellar kinematics in the nucleus of M31 and concluded that the parameters obtained for the stellar disk are not formally compatible with the parameters obtained for the H{alpha} emitting disk. This result suggests that the stellar and the H{alpha} emitting disks are intrinsically different from each other. A plausible explanation is that the H{alpha} emission is associated with a gaseous disk. This hypothesis is supported by the detection of traces of weaker nebular lines in the nuclear region of M31. However, we cannot exclude the possibility that the H{alpha} emission is, at least partially, generated by stars.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗