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Main Authors: Wolf, Christian, Lai, Samuel, Onken, Christopher A., Amrutha, Neelesh, Bian, Fuyan, Hon, Wei Jeat, Tisserand, Patrick, Webster, Rachel L.
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.15101
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author Wolf, Christian
Lai, Samuel
Onken, Christopher A.
Amrutha, Neelesh
Bian, Fuyan
Hon, Wei Jeat
Tisserand, Patrick
Webster, Rachel L.
author_facet Wolf, Christian
Lai, Samuel
Onken, Christopher A.
Amrutha, Neelesh
Bian, Fuyan
Hon, Wei Jeat
Tisserand, Patrick
Webster, Rachel L.
contents Around a million quasars have been catalogued in the Universe by probing deeper and using new methods for discovery. However, the hardest ones to find seem to be the rarest and brightest specimen. In this work, we study the properties of the most luminous of all quasars found so far. It has been overlooked until recently, which demonstrates that modern all-sky surveys have much to reveal. The black hole in this quasar accretes around one solar mass per day onto an existing mass of $\sim$17 billion solar masses. In this process its accretion disc alone releases a radiative energy of $2\times 10^{41}$ Watts. If the quasar is not strongly gravitationally lensed, then its broad line region (BLR) is expected to have the largest physical and angular diameter occurring in the Universe, and will allow the Very Large Telescope Interferometer to image its rotation and measure its black hole mass directly. This will be an important test for BLR size-luminosity relations, whose extrapolation has underpinned common black-hole mass estimates at high redshift.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_15101
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The accretion of a solar mass per day by a 17-billion solar mass black hole
Wolf, Christian
Lai, Samuel
Onken, Christopher A.
Amrutha, Neelesh
Bian, Fuyan
Hon, Wei Jeat
Tisserand, Patrick
Webster, Rachel L.
Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Around a million quasars have been catalogued in the Universe by probing deeper and using new methods for discovery. However, the hardest ones to find seem to be the rarest and brightest specimen. In this work, we study the properties of the most luminous of all quasars found so far. It has been overlooked until recently, which demonstrates that modern all-sky surveys have much to reveal. The black hole in this quasar accretes around one solar mass per day onto an existing mass of $\sim$17 billion solar masses. In this process its accretion disc alone releases a radiative energy of $2\times 10^{41}$ Watts. If the quasar is not strongly gravitationally lensed, then its broad line region (BLR) is expected to have the largest physical and angular diameter occurring in the Universe, and will allow the Very Large Telescope Interferometer to image its rotation and measure its black hole mass directly. This will be an important test for BLR size-luminosity relations, whose extrapolation has underpinned common black-hole mass estimates at high redshift.
title The accretion of a solar mass per day by a 17-billion solar mass black hole
topic Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.15101