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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 1,297 records · Page 72
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DOE OSTI2015

ACCRETION OF SUPERSONIC WINDS ONTO BLACK HOLES IN 3D: STABILITY OF THE SHOCK CONE

Using numerical simulations we present the accretion of supersonic winds onto a rotating black hole in three dimensions. We study five representative directions of the wind with respect to the axis of rotation of the black hole and focus on the evolution and stability of the high-density shock cone that is formed during the process. We explore both the regime in which the shock cone is expected to be stable in order to confirm previous results obtained with two-dimensional simulations, and the regime in which the shock cone is expected to show a flip–flop (FF) type of instability. The methods used to attempt a triggering of the instability were (i) the accumulation of numerical errors and (ii) the explicit application of a perturbation on the velocity field after the shock cone was formed. The result is negative, that is, we did not find the FF instability within the parameter space we explored, including cases that are expected to be unstable.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

AXISYMMETRIC, NONSTATIONARY BLACK HOLE MAGNETOSPHERES: REVISITED

An axisymmetric, stationary, general-relativistic, electrodynamic engine model of an active galactic nucleus was formulated by Macdonald and Thorne that consisted of a supermassive black hole surrounded by a plasma magnetosphere and a magnetized accretion disk. Based on this initial formulation, a nonstationary, force-free version of their model was constructed by Park and Vishniac (PV), with the simplifying assumption that the poloidal component of the magnetic field line velocity be confined along the radial direction in cylindrical polar coordinates. In this paper, we derive the new, nonstationary “Transfield Equation,” which was not specified in PV. If we can solve this “Transfield Equation” numerically, then we will understand the axisymmetric, nonstationary black hole magnetosphere in more rigorous ways.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Are Compton-thick AGNs the missing link between mergers and black hole growth?

We examine the host morphologies of heavily obscured active galactic nuclei (AGNs) at z∼1 to test whether obscured super-massive black hole growth at this epoch is preferentially linked to galaxy mergers. Our sample consists of 154 obscured AGNs with N{sub H}>10{sup 23.5} cm{sup −2} and z<1.5. Using visual classifications, we compare the morphologies of these AGNs to control samples of moderately obscured (10{sup 22} cm{sup −2}<N{sub H}<10{sup 23.5} cm{sup −2}) and unobscured (N{sub H}<10{sup 22} cm{sup −2}) AGN. These control AGNs have similar redshifts and intrinsic X-ray luminosities to our heavily obscured AGN. We find that heavily obscured AGNs are twice as likely to be hosted by late-type galaxies relative to unobscured AGNs (65.3{sub −4.6}{sup +4.1}% versus 34.5{sub −2.7}{sup +2.9}%) and three times as likely to exhibit merger or interaction signatures (21.5{sub −3.3}{sup +4.2}% versus 7.8{sub −1.3}{sup +1.9}%). The increased merger fraction is significant at the 3.8σ level. If we exclude all point sources and consider only extended hosts, we find that the correlation between the merger fraction and obscuration is still evident, although at a reduced statistical significance (2.5σ). The fact that we observe a different disk/spheroid fraction versus obscuration indicates that the viewing angle cannot be the only thing differentiating our three AGN samples, as a simple unification model would suggest. The increased fraction of disturbed morphologies with obscuration supports an evolutionary scenario, in which Compton-thick AGNs are a distinct phase of obscured super-massive black hole (SMBH) growth following a merger/interaction event. Our findings also suggest that some of the merger-triggered SMBH growth predicted by recent AGN fueling models may be hidden among the heavily obscured, Compton-thick population.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Powerful, rotating disk winds from stellar-mass black holes

We present an analysis of ionized X-ray disk winds found in the Fe K band of four stellar-mass black holes observed with Chandra, including 4U 1630−47, GRO J1655−40, H 1743−322, and GRS 1915+105. High-resolution photoionization grids were generated in order to model the data. Third-order gratings spectra were used to resolve complex absorption profiles into atomic effects and multiple velocity components. The Fe xxv line is found to be shaped by contributions from the intercombination line (in absorption), and the Fe xxvi line is detected as a spin–orbit doublet. The data require 2–3 absorption zones, depending on the source. The fastest components have velocities approaching or exceeding 0.01c, increasing mass outflow rates and wind kinetic power by orders of magnitude over prior single-zone models. The first-order spectra require re-emission from the wind, broadened by a degree that is loosely consistent with Keplerian orbital velocities at the photoionization radius. This suggests that disk winds are rotating with the orbital velocity of the underlying disk, and provides a new means of estimating launching radii—crucial to understanding wind driving mechanisms. Some aspects of the wind velocities and radii correspond well to the broad-line region in active galactic nuclei (AGNs), suggesting a physical connection. We discuss these results in terms of prevalent models for disk wind production and disk accretion itself, and implications for massive black holes in AGNs.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

The spatial clustering of ROSAT all-sky survey active galactic nuclei. IV. More massive black holes reside in more massive dark matter halos

This is the fourth paper in a series that reports on our investigation of the clustering properties of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) identified in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey and Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). In this paper we investigate the cause of the X-ray luminosity dependence of the clustering of broad-line, luminous AGNs at 0.16<z<0.36. We fit the Hα line profile in the SDSS spectra for all X-ray and optically selected broad-line AGNs, determine the mass of the supermassive black hole (SMBH), M{sub BH}, and infer the accretion rate relative to Eddington (L/L{sub EDD}). Since M{sub BH} and L/L{sub EDD} are correlated, we create AGN subsamples in one parameter while maintaining the same distribution in the other parameter. In both the X-ray and optically selected AGN samples, we detect a weak clustering dependence with M{sub BH} and no statistically significant dependence on L/L{sub EDD}. We find a difference of up to 2.7σ when comparing the objects that belong to the 30% least and 30% most massive M{sub BH} subsamples, in that luminous broad-line AGNs with more massive black holes reside in more massive parent dark matter halos at these redshifts. These results provide evidence that higher accretion rates in AGNs do not necessarily require dense galaxy environments, in which more galaxy mergers and interactions are expected to channel large amounts of gas onto the SMBH. We also present semianalytic models that predict a positive M{sub DMH} dependence on M{sub BH}, which is most prominent at M{sub BH}∼10{sup 8−9} M{sub ⊙}.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

A LOCAL BASELINE OF THE BLACK HOLE MASS SCALING RELATIONS FOR ACTIVE GALAXIES. II. MEASURING STELLAR VELOCITY DISPERSION IN ACTIVE GALAXIES

We derive spatially resolved stellar kinematics for a sample of 84 out of 104 observed local (0.02 < z < 0.09) galaxies hosting type-1 active galactic nuclei (AGNs), based on long-slit spectra obtained at the 10 m W. M. Keck-1 Telescope. In addition to providing central stellar velocity dispersions, we measure major axis rotation curves and velocity dispersion profiles using three separate wavelength regions, including the prominent Ca H and K, Mg Ib, and Ca II NIR stellar features. In this paper, we compare kinematic measurements of stellar velocity dispersion obtained for different apertures, wavelength regions, and signal-to-noise ratios, and provide recipes to cross-calibrate the measurements reducing systematic effects to the level of a few percent. We also provide simple recipes based on readily observable quantities such as global colors and Ca H and K equivalent width that will allow observers of high-redshift AGN hosts to increase the probability of obtaining reliable stellar kinematic measurements from unresolved spectra in the region surrounding the Ca H and K lines. In subsequent papers in this series, we will combine this unprecedented spectroscopic data set with surface photometry and black hole mass measurements to study in detail the scaling relations between host galaxy properties and black hole mass.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2024

Do black holes remember what they are made of?

We study the ringdown signal of black holes formed in prompt-collapse binary neutron star mergers. We analyze data from 47 numerical relativity simulations. We show that the ($l$ = 2, $m$ = 2) and ($l$ = 2, $m$ = 1) multipoles of the gravitational wave signal are well fitted by decaying damped exponentials, as predicted by black-hole perturbation theory. We show that the ratio of the amplitude in the two modes depends on the progenitor binary mass ratio q and reduced tidal parameter $\overline{Λ}$. Unfortunately, the numerical uncertainty in our data is too large to fully quantify this dependency. If confirmed, these results will enable novel tests of general relativity in the presence of matter with next-generation gravitational-wave observatories.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2012

Static electromagnetic fields and charged black holes in general covariant theory of Hořava-Lifshitz gravity

In this paper, we study electromeganetic static spacetimes in the nonrelativisitc general covariant theory of the Hořava-Lifshitz (HL) gravity, proposed recently by Hořava and Melby-Thompson, and present all the electric static solutions, which represent the generalization of the Reissner-Nordström solution found in Einstein's general relativity (GR). The global/local structures of spacetimes in the HL theory in general are different from those given in GR, because the dispersion relations of test particles now contain high-order momentum terms, so the speeds of these particles are unbounded in the ultraviolet (UV). As a result, the conception of light-cones defined in GR becomes invalid and test particles do not follow geodesics. To study black holes in the HL theory, we adopt the geometrical optical approximations, and define a horizon as a (two-closed) surface that is free of spacetime singularities and on which massless test particles are infinitely redshifted. With such a definition, we show that some of our solutions give rise to (charged) black holes, although the radii of their horizons in general depend on the energies of the test particles.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Tunnelling of relativistic particles from new type black hole in new massive gravity

In the framework of the three dimensional New Massive Gravity theory introduced by Bergshoeff, Hohm and Townsend, we analyze the behavior of relativistic spin-1/2 and spin-0 particles in the New-type Black Hole backgroud, solution of the New Massive Gravity.We solve Dirac equation for spin-1/2 and Klein-Gordon equation for spin-0. Using Hamilton-Jacobi method, we discuss tunnelling probability and Hawking temperature of the spin-1/2 and spin-0 particles for the black hole. We observe that the tunnelling probability and Hawking temperature are same for the spin-1/2 and spin-0.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2013

Semiclassical geons as solitonic black hole remnants

We find that the end state of black hole evaporation could be represented by non-singular and without event horizon stable solitonic remnants with masses of the order the Planck scale and up to ∼ 16 units of charge. Though these objects are locally indistinguishable from spherically symmetric, massive electric (or magnetic) charges, they turn out to be sourceless geons containing a wormhole generated by the electromagnetic field. Our results are obtained by interpreting semiclassical corrections to Einstein's theory in the first-order (Palatini) formalism, which yields second-order equations and avoids the instabilities of the usual (metric) formulation of quadratic gravity. We also discuss the potential relevance of these solutions for primordial black holes and the dark matter problem.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Calculating the mass fraction of primordial black holes

We reinspect the calculation for the mass fraction of primordial black holes (PBHs) which are formed from primordial perturbations, finding that performing the calculation using the comoving curvature perturbation R{sub c} in the standard way vastly overestimates the number of PBHs, by many orders of magnitude. This is because PBHs form shortly after horizon entry, meaning modes significantly larger than the PBH are unobservable and should not affect whether a PBH forms or not—this important effect is not taken into account by smoothing the distribution in the standard fashion. We discuss alternative methods and argue that the density contrast, Δ, should be used instead as super-horizon modes are damped by a factor k{sup 2}. We make a comparison between using a Press-Schechter approach and peaks theory, finding that the two are in close agreement in the region of interest. We also investigate the effect of varying the spectral index, and the running of the spectral index, on the abundance of primordial black holes.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2014

Astrophysical black holes in screened modified gravity

Chameleon, environmentally dependent dilaton, and symmetron gravity are three models of modified gravity in which the effects of the additional scalar degree of freedom are screened in dense environments. They have been extensively studied in laboratory, cosmological, and astrophysical contexts. In this paper, we present a preliminary investigation into whether additional constraints can be provided by studying these scalar fields around black holes. By looking at the properties of a static, spherically symmetric black hole, we find that the presence of a non-uniform matter distribution induces a non-constant scalar profile in chameleon and dilaton, but not necessarily symmetron gravity. An order of magnitude estimate shows that the effects of these profiles on in-falling test particles will be sub-leading compared to gravitational waves and hence observationally challenging to detect.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Never judge a black hole by its area

Christodoulou and Rovelli have shown that black holes have large interiors that grow asymptotically linearly in advanced time, and speculated that this may be relevant to the information loss paradox. We show that there is no simple relation between the interior volume of an arbitrary black hole and its horizon area. That is, the volume enclosed is not necessarily a monotonically increasing function of the surface area.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Using iron line reverberation and spectroscopy to distinguish Kerr and non-Kerr black holes

The iron Kα line commonly observed in the X-ray spectrum of both stellar-mass and supermassive black hole candidates is produced by the illumination of a cold accretion disk by a hot corona. In this framework, the activation of a new flaring region in the hot corona imprints a time variation on the iron line spectrum. Future X-ray facilities with high time resolution and large effective areas may be able to measure the so-called 2-dimensional transfer function; that is, the iron line profile detected by a distant observer as a function of time in response to an instantaneous flare from the X-ray primary source. This work is a preliminary study to determine if and how such a technique can provide more information about the spacetime geometry around the compact object than the already possible measurements of the time-integrated iron line profile. Within our simplified model, we find that a measurement of iron line reverberation can improve constraints appreciably given a sufficiently strong signal, though that most of the information is present in the time-integrated spectrum. Our aim is to test the Kerr metric. We find that current X-ray facilities and data are unable to provide strong tests of the Kerr nature of supermassive black hole candidates. We consider an optimistic case of 10{sup 5} iron line photons from a next-generation data set. With such data, the reverberation model improves upon the spectral constraint by an order of magnitude.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Born-Infeld and charged black holes with non-linear source in f(T) gravity

We investigate f(T) theory coupled with a nonlinear source of electrodynamics, for a spherically symmetric and static spacetime in 4D. We re-obtain the Born-Infeld and Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS solutions. We generalize the no-go theorem for any content that obeys the relationship T{sup 0}{sub 0}=T{sup 1}{sub 1} for the energy-momentum tensor and a given set of tetrads. Our results show new classes of solutions where the metrics are related through b(r)=−Na(r). We do the introductory analysis showing that solutions are that of asymptotically flat black holes, with a singularity at the origin of the radial coordinate, covered by a single event horizon. We also reconstruct the action for this class of solutions and obtain the functional form f(T)=f{sub 0}(−T){sup (N+3)/[2(N+1)]} and L{sub NED}=L{sub 0}(−F){sup (N+3)/[2(N+1)]}. Using the Lagrangian density of Born-Infeld, we obtain a new class of charged black holes where the action reads f(T)=−16β{sub BI}[1−√1+(T/4β{sub BI})].

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Strong gravitational lensing for the photons coupled to Weyl tensor in a Schwarzschild black hole spacetime

We have investigated the strong gravitational lensing for the photons coupled to Weyl tensor in a Schwarzschild black hole spacetime. We find that in the four-dimensional black hole spacetime the equation of motion of the photons depends not only on the coupling between photon and Weyl tensor, but also on the polarization direction of the photons. It is quite different from that in the case of the usual photon without coupling to Weyl tensor in which the equation of motion is independent of the polarization of the photon. Moreover, we find that the coupling and the polarization direction modify the properties of the photon sphere, the deflection angle, the coefficients in strong field lensing, and the observational gravitational lensing variables. Combining with the supermassive central object in our Galaxy, we estimated three observables in the strong gravitational lensing for the photons coupled to Weyl tensor.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2015

Properties of the distorted Kerr black hole

We investigate the properties of the ergoregion and the location of the curvature singularities for the Kerr black hole distorted by the gravitational field of external sources. The particular cases of quadrupole and octupole distortion are studied in detail. We also investigate the scalar curvature invariants of the horizon and compare their behaviour with the case of the isolated Kerr black hole. In a certain region of the parameter space the ergoregion consists of a compact region encompassing the horizon and a disconnected part extending to infinity. The curvature singularities in the domain of outer communication, when they exist, are always located on the boundary of the ergoregion. We present arguments that they do not lie on the compact ergosurface. For quadrupole distortion the compact ergoregion size is negatively correlated with the horizon angular momentum when the external sources are varied. For octupole distortion infinitely many ergoregion configurations can exist for a certain horizon angular momentum. For some special cases we can have J{sup 2}/M{sup 4} > 1 and yet avoid a naked singularity.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
DOE OSTI2016

Phenomenology of bouncing black holes in quantum gravity: a closer look

It was recently shown that black holes could be bouncing stars as a consequence of quantum gravity. We investigate the astrophysical signals implied by this hypothesis, focusing on primordial black holes. We consider different possible bounce times and study the integrated diffuse emission.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗