The Discovery of Polarized Water Vapor Megamaser Emission in a Molecular Accretion Disk

Fuente: arXiv
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Hauptverfasser: Gallimore, Jack F., Impellizzeri, C. M. Violette, Aghelpasand, Samaneh, Gao, Feng, Hostetter, Virginia, Lankhaar, Boy
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2024
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author Gallimore, Jack F.
Impellizzeri, C. M. Violette
Aghelpasand, Samaneh
Gao, Feng
Hostetter, Virginia
Lankhaar, Boy
author_facet Gallimore, Jack F.
Impellizzeri, C. M. Violette
Aghelpasand, Samaneh
Gao, Feng
Hostetter, Virginia
Lankhaar, Boy
contents For the first time in an extragalactic source, we detect linearly polarized water maser emission associated with the molecular accretion disk of NGC 1068. The position angles of the electric polarization vectors are perpendicular to the axes of filamentary structures in the molecular accretion disk. The inferred magnetic field threading the molecular disk must lie within approximately 35 degrees of the sky plane. The orientation of the magnetic fields relative to the disk plane implies that the maser region is unstable to hydromagnetically powered outflow; we speculate that the maser region may be the source of the larger scale molecular outflow found in ALMA studies. The new VLBI observations also reveal a compact radio continuum source, NGC 1068*, aligned with the near-systemic maser spots. The molecular accretion disk must be viewed nearly edge-on, and the revised central mass is (16.6 +/- 0.1) million solar masses.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2410_10569
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle The Discovery of Polarized Water Vapor Megamaser Emission in a Molecular Accretion Disk
Gallimore, Jack F.
Impellizzeri, C. M. Violette
Aghelpasand, Samaneh
Gao, Feng
Hostetter, Virginia
Lankhaar, Boy
Astrophysics of Galaxies
For the first time in an extragalactic source, we detect linearly polarized water maser emission associated with the molecular accretion disk of NGC 1068. The position angles of the electric polarization vectors are perpendicular to the axes of filamentary structures in the molecular accretion disk. The inferred magnetic field threading the molecular disk must lie within approximately 35 degrees of the sky plane. The orientation of the magnetic fields relative to the disk plane implies that the maser region is unstable to hydromagnetically powered outflow; we speculate that the maser region may be the source of the larger scale molecular outflow found in ALMA studies. The new VLBI observations also reveal a compact radio continuum source, NGC 1068*, aligned with the near-systemic maser spots. The molecular accretion disk must be viewed nearly edge-on, and the revised central mass is (16.6 +/- 0.1) million solar masses.
title The Discovery of Polarized Water Vapor Megamaser Emission in a Molecular Accretion Disk
topic Astrophysics of Galaxies
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2410.10569