Timescales of Quasar Accretion Discs from Low to High Black Hole Masses and a Turnover at the High Mass End
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arXiv
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2024
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| author | Wolf, C. Lai, S. Tang, J. -J. Tonry, J. |
| author_facet | Wolf, C. Lai, S. Tang, J. -J. Tonry, J. |
| contents | Characteristic time scales in the stochastic UV-optical variability of quasars may depend on the mass of their black holes, $M_{\rm BH}$, as much as physical timescales in their accretion discs do. We calculate emission-weighted mean radii, $R_{\rm mean}$, and orbital timescales, $t_{\rm mean}$, of standard thin disc models for emission wavelengths $λ$ from 1000 to 10000 AA, $M_{\rm BH}$ from $10^6$ to $10^{11}$ solar masses, and Eddington ratios from 0.01 to 1. At low $M_{\rm BH}$, we find the textbook behaviour of $t_{\rm mean}\propto M_{\rm BH}^{-1/2}$ alongside $R_{\rm mean} \approx \mathrm{const}$, but toward higher masses the growing event horizon imposes $R_{\rm mean} \propto M_{\rm BH}$ and thus a turnover into $t_{\rm mean}\propto M_{\rm BH}$. For quasars of $\log L_{\rm bol}=47$, the turnover mass, where $t_{\rm mean}$ starts rising is $M_{\rm BH}\approx 9.5$, which means that the turnover in $t_{\rm mean}$ is well within the range of high-luminosity quasar samples, whose variability time scales might thus show little mass dependence. We fit smoothly broken power laws to the results and provide analytic convenience functions for $R_{\rm mean}(λ,M_{\rm BH},L_{3000})$ and $t_{\rm mean}(λ,M_{\rm BH},L_{3000})$. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2411_02759 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2024 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Timescales of Quasar Accretion Discs from Low to High Black Hole Masses and a Turnover at the High Mass End Wolf, C. Lai, S. Tang, J. -J. Tonry, J. Astrophysics of Galaxies Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena Characteristic time scales in the stochastic UV-optical variability of quasars may depend on the mass of their black holes, $M_{\rm BH}$, as much as physical timescales in their accretion discs do. We calculate emission-weighted mean radii, $R_{\rm mean}$, and orbital timescales, $t_{\rm mean}$, of standard thin disc models for emission wavelengths $λ$ from 1000 to 10000 AA, $M_{\rm BH}$ from $10^6$ to $10^{11}$ solar masses, and Eddington ratios from 0.01 to 1. At low $M_{\rm BH}$, we find the textbook behaviour of $t_{\rm mean}\propto M_{\rm BH}^{-1/2}$ alongside $R_{\rm mean} \approx \mathrm{const}$, but toward higher masses the growing event horizon imposes $R_{\rm mean} \propto M_{\rm BH}$ and thus a turnover into $t_{\rm mean}\propto M_{\rm BH}$. For quasars of $\log L_{\rm bol}=47$, the turnover mass, where $t_{\rm mean}$ starts rising is $M_{\rm BH}\approx 9.5$, which means that the turnover in $t_{\rm mean}$ is well within the range of high-luminosity quasar samples, whose variability time scales might thus show little mass dependence. We fit smoothly broken power laws to the results and provide analytic convenience functions for $R_{\rm mean}(λ,M_{\rm BH},L_{3000})$ and $t_{\rm mean}(λ,M_{\rm BH},L_{3000})$. |
| title | Timescales of Quasar Accretion Discs from Low to High Black Hole Masses and a Turnover at the High Mass End |
| topic | Astrophysics of Galaxies Cosmology and Nongalactic Astrophysics High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2411.02759 |