Powerful flares from recoiling black holes in quasars

Details Powerful flares from recoiling black holes in quasars Powerful flares from recoiling black holes in quasars

2008-02-26

arxiv.org/abs/0802.3873v1

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

15 pages, 7 figures, submitted to ApJ

Scientific paper

10.1086/589427

Mergers of spinning black holes can give recoil velocities from gravitational radiation up to several thousand km/s. A recoiling supermassive black hole in an AGN retains the inner part of its accretion disk. Marginally bound material rejoining the disk around the moving black hole releases a large amount of energy in shocks in a short time, leading to a flare in thermal soft X-rays with a luminosity approaching the Eddington limit. Reprocessing of the X-rays by the infalling material gives strong optical and ultraviolet emission lines with a distinctive spectrum. Despite the short lifetime of the flare (~10^4 yr), as many as 100 flares may be in play at the present time in QSOs at redshifts ~ 1 to 3. These flares provide a means to identify high velocity recoils.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Powerful flares from recoiling black holes in quasars does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Powerful flares from recoiling black holes in quasars, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Powerful flares from recoiling black holes in quasars will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-607229