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DOE OSTI2021

Solar mass primordial black holes in moduli dominated universe

In this report we explore the prospect of producing primordial black holes around the solar mass region during an early matter domination epoch. The early matter-dominated epoch can arise when a moduli field comes to dominate the energy density of the Universe prior to big bang nucleosynthesis. The absence of radiation pressure during a matter-dominated epoch enhances primordial black hole formation from the gravitational collapse of primordial density fluctuations. In particular, we find that primordial black holes are produced in the 0.1 - 10M ⊙ mass range with a favorable choice of parameters in the theory. However, they cannot explain all of the merger events detected by the LIGO/Virgo gravitational wave search. In such a case, primordial black holes form about 4% of the total dark matter abundance, of which 95% belongs to the LIGO/Virgo consistent mass range. The rest of the dark matter could be in the form of particles that are produced from the decay of the moduli field during reheating.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2026

OzDES Reverberation Mapping of Active Galactic Nuclei: Final Data Release, Black-Hole Mass Results, & Scaling Relations

Over the last decade, the Australian Dark Energy (OzDES) collaboration has used Reverberation Mapping to measure the masses of high redshift supermassive black holes. Here we present the final review and analysis of this OzDES reverberation mapping campaign. These observations use 6-7 years of photometric and spectroscopic observations of 735 Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) in the redshift range 0.13-3.85 and bolometric luminosity range 44.3 - 47.5 erg/s. Both photometry and spectra are observed in visible wavelengths, allowing for the physical scale of the AGN broad line region to be estimated from reverberations of the H{̱e̱ṯa̱}̱, MgII and CIV emission lines. We successfully use reverberation mapping to constrain the masses of 62 super-massive black holes, and combine with existing data to fit a power law to the lag-luminosity relation for the H{̱e̱ṯa̱}̱ and MgII lines with a scatter of ~0.25 dex, the tightest yet identified, fit specifically for consistency with high redshift AGN. We fit a similarly constrained relation for CIV, resolving a tension with the low luminosity literature AGN by accounting for selection effects arising from finite survey length. We also examine the impact of emission line width and luminosity (related to accretion rate) in reducing the scatter of these scaling relationships and find no significant improvement over the lag-only approach for any of the three lines. Using these relations, we further estimate the masses and accretion rates of 246 AGN with single epoch methods. We also use these relations to estimate the relative sizes of the H{̱e̱ṯa̱}̱, MgII and CIV emitting regions. In short, we provide a comprehensive benchmark of high redshift AGN reverberation mapping at the close of this most recent generation of surveys, including light curves, time-delays, and a set of significantly improved radius-luminosity relations for use with high-redshift populations.

McDougall, Hugh [Queensland U.]↗

DOE OSTI2021

Filling the black hole mass gap: Avoiding pair instability in massive stars through addition of nonnuclear energy

In standard stellar evolution, stars with masses ranging from approximately 150 to 240M ⊙ are expected to evolve to a pair instability supernova with no black hole (BH) remnant. This evolutionary behavior leads to a predicted gap in the black hole mass function from approximately 50 to 140M ⊙ . Yet the LIGO and Virgo Collaborations recently discovered black holes of masses 66M ⊙ and 85M ⊙ in the gravitational wave event GW190521. Here, we propose a new method to populate the BH mass gap. If an energy source is added throughout the star in addition to nuclear fusion, it is possible for the altered evolution to avoid the complete destruction of a pair instability supernova, and instead a BH remnant is left behind. An example of an extra energy source is dark matter annihilation within the star, but our results hold more generally. We show this phenomenon by exploring the effect of adding an energy source independent of temperature and density to a 180M ⊙ star, using the MESA one-dimensional stellar evolution software. If ~50% of the star’s energy is due to this new source, the star is capable of avoiding the pair instability entirely and evolving towards a core-collapse supernova and ultimately a BH remnant with mass ~ 120M ⊙ .

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS2019

The Seoul National University AGN Monitoring Project. II. BLR Size and Black Hole Mass of Two AGNs

Active galactic nuclei (AGNs) show a correlation between the size of the broad line region and the monochromatic continuum luminosity at 5100 Å, allowing black hole mass estimation based on single-epoch spectra. However, the validity of the correlation is yet to be clearly tested for high-luminosity AGNs. We present the first reverberation mapping results of the Seoul National University AGN Monitoring Project (SAMP), which is designed to focus on luminous AGNs for probing the high end of the size–luminosity relation. We report time lag measurements of two AGNs, namely, 2MASS J10261389+5237510 and SDSS J161911.24+501109.2, using the light curves obtained over an ~1000 days period with an average cadence of 10 and 20 days, respectively, for photometry and spectroscopy monitoring. Based on a cross-correlation analysis and Hβ line width measurements, we determine the Hβ lag as 41.8(+4.9, -6.0) and 52.6(+17.6, -14.7) days in the observed frame, and black hole mass as 3.65(+0.49,-0.57) X 10 (exp 7) Solar Mass and 23.02(+7.81,-6.56) X 10 (exp 7) Solar Mass, respectively, for 2MASS J1026 and SDSS J1619.

Suvendu Rakshit↗

NASA NTRS2003

Black Hole Masses in Three Seyfert Galaxies

We analyze published reverberation mapping data for three Seyfert galaxies (NGC 3227, NGC 3516, and NGC 4593) to refine the mass estimate for the supermassive black hole in the center of each object. Treatment of the data in a manner more consistent with other large compilations of such masses allows us to more securely compare our results to wider samples of data, e.g., in the investigation of the M(sub bh-sigma*) relationship for active and quiescent galaxies.

Onken, C. A.↗

DOE OSTI2022

BASS. XXV. DR2 Broad-line-based Black Hole Mass Estimates and Biases from Obscuration

We present measurements of broad emission lines and virial estimates of supermassive black hole masses (M BH ) for a large sample of ultrahard X-ray-selected active galactic nuclei (AGNs) as part of the second data release of the BAT AGN Spectroscopic Survey (BASS/DR2). Our catalog includes M BH estimates for a total of 689 AGNs, determined from the Hα, Hβ, Mg II λ2798, and/or C IV λ1549 broad emission lines. The core sample includes a total of 512 AGNs drawn from the 70 month Swift/BAT all-sky catalog. We also provide measurements for 177 additional AGNs that are drawn from deeper Swift/BAT survey data. We study the links between M BH estimates and line-of-sight obscuration measured from X-ray spectral analysis. We find that broad Hα emission lines in obscured AGNs ($\mathrm{log}({N}_{{\rm{H}}}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{-2})\gt 22.0$) are on average a factor of ${8.0}_{-2.4}^{+4.1}$ weaker relative to ultrahard X-ray emission and about ${35}_{-12}^{\,+7}$% narrower than those in unobscured sources (i.e., $\mathrm{log}({N}_{{\rm{H}}}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{-2})\lt 21.5$). This indicates that the innermost part of the broad-line region is preferentially absorbed. Consequently, current single-epoch M BH prescriptions result in severely underestimated (>1 dex) masses for Type 1.9 sources (AGNs with broad Hα but no broad Hβ) and/or sources with $\mathrm{log}({N}_{{\rm{H}}}/{\mathrm{cm}}^{-2})\gtrsim 22.0$. We provide simple multiplicative corrections for the observed luminosity and width of the broad Hα component (L[bHα] and FWHM[bHα]) in such sources to account for this effect and to (partially) remedy M BH estimates for Type 1.9 objects. As a key ingredient of BASS/DR2, our work provides the community with the data needed to further study powerful AGNs in the low-redshift universe.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2022

CLASS: Coronal Line Activity Spectroscopic Survey

We conduct the first systematic survey of a comprehensive set of the twenty optical coronal lines in the spectra of nearly 1 million galaxies observed by the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 8 catalog. This includes often overlooked high ionization potential lines such as [Ar x] λ5533, [S XII ] λ7609, [Fe XI ] λ7892, and [Fe XIV ] λ5303. We find that, given the limited sensitivity of SDSS, strong coronal line emission is extremely rare, with only ~0.03% of the sample showing at least one coronal line, significantly lower than the fraction of galaxies showing optical narrow line ratios (~17%) or mid-infrared colors (~2%) indicative of nuclear activity. The coronal line luminosities exhibit a large dynamic range, with values ranging from ~10 34 to 10 42 erg s –1 . We find that a vast majority (~80%) of coronal line emitters in dwarf galaxies (M $\star$ < 9.6 × 10 9 M ⊙ ) do not display optical narrow line ratios indicative of nuclear activity, in contrast to higher mass galaxies (~17%). Moreover, we find that the highest ionization potential lines are preferentially found in lower mass galaxies. These findings are consistent with the theory that lower mass black holes found in lower mass galaxies produce a hotter accretion disk, which in turn enhances the higher ionization coronal line spectrum. Future coronal line searches with 30 m class telescopes or JWST may provide a pathway into uncovering the intermediate mass black hole population.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

DOE OSTI2023

Statistical analysis of Al III and C III ] emission lines as virial black hole mass estimators in quasars

We test the usefulness of the intermediate ionisation lines Al IIIλ1860 and C III]λ1909 as reliable virial mass estimators for quasars. We identified a sample of 309 quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 16 (SDSS DR16) in the redshift range 1.2 ≤ z ≤ 1.4 that have [O II]λ3728 recorded on the same spectrum as Al IIIλ1860, Si III]λ1892, and C III]λ1909. We set the systemic quasar redshift using careful measurements of [O II]λ3728. We then classified the sources as Population A (Pop. A), extreme Population A (Pop. xA), and Population B (Pop. B), and analysed the 1900 Å blend using multi-component models to look for systematic line shifts of Al IIIλ1860 and C III]λ1909 along the quasar main sequence. We do not find significant shifts of the Al IIIλ1860 line peak in Pop. B or in the vast majority of Pop. A. For Pop. xA, a small median blueshift of -250 km s -1 was observed, motivating a decomposition of the Al III line profile into a virialised component centred at rest frame and a blueshifted component for an outflow emission. For Pop. B objects, we proved the empirical necessity to fit a redshifted very broad component, clearly seen in C III], and analysed the physical implications on a Pop. B composite spectrum using CLOUDY simulations. We find consistent black hole mass estimations using Al III and C III] as virial estimators for the bulk of Pop. A. Al III (and even C III]) is a reliable virial black hole mass estimator for Pop. A and Pop. B objects. The Pop. xA sources deserve special attention due to the significant blueshifted excess observed in the line profile of Al III, although it is not as large as the excess observed in C IVλ1549.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗

NASA NTRS2020

Tidal Disruptions of Main Sequence Stars - I. Observable Quantities and their Dependence on Stellar and Black Hole Mass

This paper introduces a series of papers presenting a quantitative theory for the tidal disruption of main-sequence stars by supermassive black holes. Using fully general relativistic hydrodynamics simulations and MESA-model initial conditions, we explore the pericenter-dependence of tidal disruption properties for eight stellar masses(MM0.1510)and six black hole masses( MM105 105BH7). We present here the results most relevant to observations. The effects of internal stellar structure and relativity decouple for both the disruption cross section and the characteristic energy width of the debris. Moreover, the full disruption cross section is almost independent of Må for Må/Me3. Independent of Må, relativistic effects increase the critical pericenter distance for full disruption events by up to a factor of∼3 relative to the Newtonian prediction. The probability of a direct capture is also independent of Må; at MBH/Me;5×106 this probability is equal to the probability of a complete disruption. The breadth of the debris energy distribution ΔE can differ from the standard estimate by factors of0.35−2, depending on Må and MBH, implying a corresponding change(∝(ΔE)−3/2)in the characteristic mass-return timescale. We provide analytic forms, suitable for use in both event rate estimates and parameter inference, to describe all these trends. For partial disruptions, we find a nearly universal relation between the star’s angular momentum and the fraction of Må remaining. Within the “empty loss-cone” regime, partial disruptions must precede full disruptions. These partial disruptions can drastically affect the rate and appearance of subsequent total disruptions.

Taeho Ryu↗

NASA NTRS2010

X-Ray Variability of ULXs and the Mass of NGC 5408 X-1

Several of the brightest ULXs now have detections of characteristic variability timescales in the X-ray; including quasiperiodic oscillation and power spectral break frequencies. The best example at present is NGC5408 X-1, which has shown X-ray timing and spectral behavior closely analogous to that observed in Galactic, stellar mass black holes, but at systematically higher luminosities and longer timescales. I will present recent XMM-Newton observations of X-1 that reveal a QPO frequency -- spectral index relationship consistent with that seen in stellar-mass black hole systems of known mass. I will show that extension of the frequency -- spectral index scaling relationship from the stellar-mass systems to X-1 suggests that it harbors an intermediate mass black hole. I will also present the results of regular, ongoing monitoring of X-1 with Swift, including the discovery of an 113 day periodicity that is likely the orbital period of the black hole binary.

Strohmayer, Todd↗

DOE OSTI2020

Updated constraints on asteroid-mass primordial black holes as dark matter

Microlensing of stars places significant constraints on subplanetary-mass compact objects, including primordial black holes, as dark matter candidates. As the lens’ Einstein radius in the source plane becomes comparable to the size of the light source, however, source amplification is strongly suppressed, making it challenging to constrain lenses with a mass at or below 10 –10 solar masses, i.e., asteroid-mass objects. Current constraints, using Subaru Hyper Suprime Cam (HSC) observations of M31, assume a fixed source size of one solar radius. However, the actual stars in M31 bright enough to be used for microlensing are typically much larger. We correct the HSC constraints by constructing a source size distribution based on the M31 PHAT survey and on a synthetic stellar catalog and by correspondingly weighting the finite-size source effects. In this work, we find that the actual HSC constraints are weaker by up to almost 3 orders of magnitude in some cases, broadening the range of masses for which primordial black holes can be the totality of the cosmological dark matter by almost 1 order of magnitude.

75 CONDENSED MATTER PHYSICS, SUPERCONDUCTIVITY AND↗

NASA NTRS2004

Black Holes Masses in Seyfert Galaxies

There is increasing evidence for the existence of supermassive black holes at the centers of all galaxies, and much work is being devoted to understand the process that lead to their formation, the duty cycle for the active phase of these black holes and the relevant fueling mechanisms. Seyfert galaxies determined by HST high spatial resolution observations of the kinematics of the central regions. The study of the gas kinematics provides a unique tool to probe the gravitational potential of the nuclear regions of Seyfert galaxies down to a limit radius of a few parsecs. This is particularly important to detect and measure the mass associated with any central massive black hole. We have obtained high spatial resolution spectra of a number of Seyfert galaxies, with the STIS G430M and G750M gratings, and we have been able to separate the emission line components associated with different velocity systems. We have derived two-dimensional velocity fields and determined the mass of the central black hole with good precision for each of the galaxies.

Macchetto, F. D.↗

NASA NTRS2022

An Isolated Mass-gap Black Hole or Neutron Star Detected with Astrometric Microlensing

We present the analysis of five black hole candidates identified from gravitational microlensing surveys. Hubble Space Telescope astrometric data and densely sampled light curves from ground-based microlensing surveys are fit with a single-source, single-lens microlensing model in order to measure the mass and luminosity of each lens and determine if it is a black hole. One of the five targets (OGLE-2011-BLG-0462/MOA-2011-BLG-191 or OB110462 for short) shows a significant >1 mas coherent astrometric shift, little to no lens flux, and has an inferred lens mass of 1.6–4.4 M ⨀ . This makes OB110462 the first definitive discovery of a compact object through astrometric microlensing and it is most likely either a neutron star or a low-mass black hole. This compact-object lens is relatively nearby (0.70–1.92 kpc) and has a slow transverse motion of <30 kms -1 . OB110462 shows significant tension between models well fit to photometry versus astrometry, making it currently difficult to distinguish between a neutron star and a black hole. Additional observations and modeling with more complex system geometries, such as binary sources, are needed to resolve the puzzling nature of this object. For the remaining four candidates, the lens masses are <2M ⨀ , and they are unlikely to be black holes; two of the four are likely white dwarfs or neutron stars. We compare the full sample of five candidates to theoretical expectations on the number of black holes in the Milky Way (∼10 8 ) and find reasonable agreement given the small sample size.

Astrophysical black holes↗

DOE OSTI2022

The Effect of Supernova Convection On Neutron Star and Black Hole Masses

Abstract Our understanding of the convective-engine paradigm driving core-collapse supernovae has been used for two decades to predict the remnant mass distribution from stellar collapse. These predictions improve as our understanding of this engine increases. In this paper, we review our current understanding of convection (in particular, the growth rate of convection) in stellar collapse and study its effect on the remnant mass distribution. We show how the depth of the mass gap between neutron stars and black holes can help probe this convective growth. We include a study of the effects of stochasticity in both the stellar structure and the convective seeds caused by stellar burning. We study the role of rotation and its effect on the pair-instability mass gap. Under the paradigm limiting stellar rotation to those stars in tight binaries, we determine the effect of rotation on the remnant mass distribution.

Fryer, Chris L. (ORCID:0000000326240056)↗

NASA NTRS2020

Tidal Disruptions of Main-sequence Stars. IV. Relativistic Effects and Dependence on Black Hole Mass

Using a suite of fully relativistic hydrodynamic simulations applied to main-sequence stars with realistic internal density profiles, we examine full and partial tidal disruptions across a wide range of black hole mass (10(exp 5)≤M(BH)/M(ʘ)≤5 x 10(exp 7) and stellar mass (0.3≤M(*)/M(ʘ)≤3) as larger M(BH) leads to stronger relativistic effects. For fixed M( ), as M(BH) increases, the ratio of the maximum pericenter distance yielding full disruptions ( ) to its Newtonian prediction rises rapidly, becoming triple the Newtonian value for M(BH)=5 x 10(exp 7)M(ʘ), while the ratio of the energy width of the stellar debris for full disruptions to the Newtonian prediction decreases steeply, resulting in a factor of 2 correction at M(BH)=5 x 10(exp 7)M(ʘ). We provide approximate formulae that express the relativistic corrections of both R(t) and the energy width relative to their Newtonian approximate estimates. For partial disruptions, we find that the fractional remnant mass for a given ratio of the pericenter to R(t) is higher for larger M(BH). These results have several implications. As M(BH) increases above ~10(exp 7)M(ʘ), the cross section for complete disruptions is suppressed by competition with direct capture. However, the cross-section ratio for partial to complete disruptions depends only weakly on M(BH). The relativistic correction to the debris energy width delays the time of peak mass-return rate and diminishes the magnitude of the peak return rate. For M(BH)≳10(exp 7)M(ʘ), the M(BH)-dependence of the full disruption cross section and the peak mass-return rate and time is influenced more by relativistic effects than by Newtonian dynamics.

Taeho Ryu↗

NASA NTRS2020

Tidal Disruptions of Main-sequence Stars. IV. Relativistic Effects and Dependence on Black Hole Mass

Using a suite of fully relativistic hydrodynamic simulations applied to main-sequence stars with realistic internal density profiles, we examine full and partial tidal disruptions across a wide range of black hole mass( MM105 105BH7)and stellar mass (MM0.33) as larger MBH leads to stronger relativistic effects. For fixed Må, as MBH increases, the ratio of the maximum pericenter distance yielding full disruptions (t) to its Newtonian prediction rises rapidly, becoming triple the Newtonian value for= ́MM510BH7, while the ratio of the energy width of the stellar debris for full disruptions to the Newtonian prediction decreases steeply, resulting in a factor of 2 correction at= ́MM510BH7. We provide approximate formulae that express the relativistic corrections of both t and the energy width relative to their Newtonian approximate estimates. For partial disruptions, we find that the fractional remnant mass for a given ratio of the pericenter to t is higher for larger MBH. These results have several implications. As MBH increases above~M107, the cross section for complete disruptions is suppressed by competition with direct capture. However, the cross-section ratio for partial to complete disruptions depends only weakly on MBH. The relativistic correction to the debris energy width delays the time of peak mass-return rate and diminishes the magnitude of the peak return rate. ForMM10BH7, the MBH-dependence of the full disruption cross section and the peak mass-return rate and time is influenced more by relativistic effects than by Newtonian dynamics.

Taeho Ryu↗

NASA NTRS2014

Black Hole Mass Determination In the X-Ray Binary 4U 1630-47: Scaling of Spectral and Variability Characteristics

We present the results of a comprehensive investigation on the evolution of spectral and timing properties of the Galactic black hole candidate 4U 1630-47 during its spectral transitions. In particular, we show how a scaling of the correlation of the photon index of the Comptonized spectral component gamma with low-frequency quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs), ν(sub L), and mass accretion rate, M, can be applied to the black hole mass and the inclination angle estimates.We analyze the transition episodes observed with the Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer and BeppoSAX satellites.We find that the broadband X-ray energy spectra of 4U 1630-47 during all spectral states can be modeled by a combination of a thermal component, a Comptonized component, and a red-skewed iron-line component. We also establish that gamma monotonically increases during transition from the low-hard state to the high-soft state and then saturates for high mass accretion rates. The index saturation levels vary for different transition episodes. Correlations of gamma versus ν(sub L) also show saturation at gamma (is) approximately 3. Gamma -M and gamma -ν(sub L) correlations with their index saturation revealed in 4U 1630-47 are similar to those established in a number of other black hole candidates and can be considered as an observational evidence for the presence of a black hole in these sources. The scaling technique, which relies on XTE J1550-564, GRO 1655-40, and H1743-322 as reference sources, allows us to evaluate a black hole mass in 4U 1630-47 yielding M(sub BH) (is) approximately 10 +/- 0.1 solar masses and to constrain the inclination angle of i (is) approximately less than 70 deg.

accretion↗

DOE OSTI2025

Iron-corrected Single-epoch Black Hole Masses of DESI Quasars at Low Redshift

We present a study on the possible overestimation of single-epoch supermassive black hole (SMBH) masses in previous works, based on more than 55,000 type 1 quasars at 0.25 < z < 0.8 from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI). We confirm that iron emission strength serves as a good tracer of the Eddington ratio, and estimate SMBH masses using an iron-corrected R–L relation for Hβ, where R is the broad-line region size and L is the continuum luminosity. Compared with our measurements, previous canonical measurements without the iron correction are overestimated by a factor of 1.5 on average. The overestimation can be up to a factor of 5 for super-Eddington quasars. The fraction of super-Eddington quasars in our sample is about 5%, significantly higher than 0.4% derived from the canonical measurements. Using a sample featuring both Hβ and Mg II emission lines, we calibrate Mg II -based SMBH masses using iron-corrected, Hβ-based SMBH masses and establish an iron-corrected R–L relation for Mg II . The revised relation features a flatter luminosity dependence with a slope of 0.36 and incorporates an additional term of −0.21R Fe , where R Fe denotes the relative iron strength. We use this formula to build a catalog of about 0.5 million DESI quasars at 0.6 < z < 1.6. If these iron-corrected R–L relations for Hβ and Mg II are valid at high redshift, current mass measurements of luminous quasars at z ≥ 6 would have been overestimated by a factor of 2.3 on average, alleviating the tension between SMBH mass and growth history in the early universe.

active galactic nuclei↗