Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2000-06-20
ApJ, 544, No.1, 20/ Nov, 2000
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
16 pages in emulateapj style, 11 figures
Scientific paper
10.1086/317214
Recent observations show strong evidence for the presence of Doppler-shifted emission lines in the spectrum of both black hole candidates and active galactic nuclei. These lines are likely to originate from relativistic outflows (or jets) in the vicinity of the central black hole. Consequently, the profile of such a line should be distorted by strong gravitational effects near the black hole, as well as special relativistic effects. In this paper, we present results from a detailed study on how each process affects the observed line profile. We found that the profile is sensitive to the intrinsic properties of the jets (Lorentz factor, velocity profile, and emissivity law), as well as to the spin of the black hole and the viewing angle (with respect to the axis of the jets). More specifically, in the case of approaching jets, an intrisically narrow line (blue-shifted) is seen as simply broadened at small viewing angles, but it shows a doubly peaked profile at large viewing angles for extreme Kerr black holes (due to the combination of gravitational focusing and Doppler effects); the profile is always singly peaked for Schwarzschild black holes. For receding jets, however, the line profile becomes quite complicated owing to complicated photon trajectories. To facilitate comparison with observations, we searched a large parameter space to derive representative line profiles. We show the results and discuss how to use emission lines as a potential tool for probing the inner region of a black hole jet system.
Cao Xin-Wu
Wang Jian-Min
Wu Mei
Yuan Ye-Fei
Zhou You-Yuan
No associations
LandOfFree
The profile of an emission line from relativistic outflows around a black hole 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 The profile of an emission line from relativistic outflows around a black hole, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and The profile of an emission line from relativistic outflows around a black hole will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-160293