Stellar black holes can "stretch'' supermassive black hole accretion disks

Fuente: arXiv
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Autores principales: Zhou, Shuying, Sun, Mouyuan, Liu, Tong, Wang, Jian-Min, Wang, Jun-Xian, Xue, Yongquan
Formato: Preprint
Publicado: 2024
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author Zhou, Shuying
Sun, Mouyuan
Liu, Tong
Wang, Jian-Min
Wang, Jun-Xian
Xue, Yongquan
author_facet Zhou, Shuying
Sun, Mouyuan
Liu, Tong
Wang, Jian-Min
Wang, Jun-Xian
Xue, Yongquan
contents Stellar black holes (sBHs) are widely believed to exist in the accretion disks of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Previous studies often focus on the transient emission produced by embedded sBHs. Here, we explore the possible observational consequences of an AGN accretion disk that contains a population of accreting sBHs. Embedded accreting sBHs change the effective temperature distribution of the AGN accretion disk by heating gas in the outer regions. Two possible observational consequences are presented. First, the spectral energy distribution has a turnover feature at $\sim 4700\ \textrmÅ$ when the supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass is $\sim 10^8\ M_{\odot}$, which can help explain the observed shallow spectral shape at wavelengths $>5000\ \textrmÅ$ for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasar composite spectrum. Second, the half-light radius of a given relatively long wavelength is significantly larger than for an AGN disk without sBHs, which can be tested by microlensing observations. With appropriate sBH distributions, the model can be reconciled with quasar microlensing disk sizes. We propose that the half-light radius-wavelength relation can be utilized to investigate the distributions of embedded sBHs in AGN accretion disks.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2404_07407
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Stellar black holes can "stretch'' supermassive black hole accretion disks
Zhou, Shuying
Sun, Mouyuan
Liu, Tong
Wang, Jian-Min
Wang, Jun-Xian
Xue, Yongquan
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Astrophysics of Galaxies
Stellar black holes (sBHs) are widely believed to exist in the accretion disks of active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Previous studies often focus on the transient emission produced by embedded sBHs. Here, we explore the possible observational consequences of an AGN accretion disk that contains a population of accreting sBHs. Embedded accreting sBHs change the effective temperature distribution of the AGN accretion disk by heating gas in the outer regions. Two possible observational consequences are presented. First, the spectral energy distribution has a turnover feature at $\sim 4700\ \textrmÅ$ when the supermassive black hole (SMBH) mass is $\sim 10^8\ M_{\odot}$, which can help explain the observed shallow spectral shape at wavelengths $>5000\ \textrmÅ$ for the Sloan Digital Sky Survey quasar composite spectrum. Second, the half-light radius of a given relatively long wavelength is significantly larger than for an AGN disk without sBHs, which can be tested by microlensing observations. With appropriate sBH distributions, the model can be reconciled with quasar microlensing disk sizes. We propose that the half-light radius-wavelength relation can be utilized to investigate the distributions of embedded sBHs in AGN accretion disks.
title Stellar black holes can "stretch'' supermassive black hole accretion disks
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2404.07407