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Astrophysics > High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Title: Observable signatures of stellar-mass black holes in active galactic nuclei

Abstract: Stellar-mass black holes (BHs) are predicted to be embedded in the disks of active galactic nuclei (AGN) due to gravitational drag and in-situ star formation. However, clear evidence for AGN disk-embedded BHs is currently lacking. Here, as possible electromagnetic signatures of these BHs, we investigate breakout emission from shocks emerging around Blandford-Znajek jets launched from accreting BHs in AGN disks. We assume that the majority of the highly super-Eddington flow reaches the BH, produces a strong jet, and the jet produces feedback that shuts off accretion and thus leads to episodic flaring. While these assumptions are highly uncertain at present, they predict a breakout emission characterized by luminous thermal emission in the X-ray bands, and bright, broadband non-thermal emission from the infrared to the gamma-ray bands. The flare duration depends on the BH's distance $r$ from the central supermassive BH, varying between $10^3-10^6$ s for $r \sim 0.01-1$ pc. This emission can be discovered by current and future infrared, optical, and X-ray wide-field surveys and monitoring campaigns of nearby AGNs.
Comments: 10 pages, 4 figures, accepted in ApJL
Subjects: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE); Astrophysics of Galaxies (astro-ph.GA)
DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/acc103
Cite as: arXiv:2303.02172 [astro-ph.HE]
  (or arXiv:2303.02172v1 [astro-ph.HE] for this version)

Submission history

From: Hiromichi Tagawa [view email]
[v1] Fri, 3 Mar 2023 19:00:02 GMT (331kb,D)

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