Kavli Affiliate: Roger Blandford
| First 5 Authors: Richard Anantua, Angelo Ricarte, George Wong, Razieh Emami, Roger Blandford
| Summary:
Horizon-scale observations of the jetted active galactic nucleus M87 are
compared with simulations spanning a broad range of dissipation mechanisms and
plasma content in three-dimensional general relativistic flows around spinning
black holes. Observations of synchrotron radiation from radio to X-ray
frequencies can be compared with simulations by adding prescriptions specifying
the relativistic electron-plus-positron distribution function and associated
radiative transfer coefficients. A suite of time-varying simulations with
various spins, plasma magnetizations and turbulent heating and
equipartition-based emission prescriptions (and piecewise combinations thereof)
is chosen to represent distinct possibilities for the M87 jet/accretion
flow/black hole (JAB) system. Simulation jet morphology, polarization and
variation are then "observed" and compared with real observations to infer the
rules that govern the polarized emissivity. Our models support several possible
spin/emission model/plasma composition combinations supplying the jet in M87,
whose black hole shadow has been observed down to the photon ring at 230 GHz by
the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). Net linear polarization and circular
polarization constraints favor magnetically arrested disk (MAD) models whereas
resolved linear polarization favors standard and normal evolution (SANE) in our
parameter space. We also show that some MAD cases dominated by intrinsic
circular polarization have near-linear V/I dependence on unpaired electron or
positron content while SANE polarization exhibits markedly greater
positron-dependent Faraday effects – future probes of the SANE/MAD dichotomy
and plasma content with the EHT. This is the second work in a series also
applying the "observing" simulations methodology to near-horizon regions of
supermassive black holes in Sgr A* and 3C 279.
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