The Square Kilometre Array (SKA)

Abstract:

We report on Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) continuum observations of the black hole X-ray binary A0620–00 at an X-ray luminosity nine orders of magnitude sub-Eddington. The system was significantly detected at 98 GHz (at 44 ± 7 μJy) and only marginally at 233 GHz (20 ± 8 μJy), about 40 d later. These results suggest either an optically thin sub-mm synchrotron spectrum, or highly variable sub-mm jet emission on month time-scales. Although the latter appears more likely, we note that, at the time of the ALMA observations, A0620–00 was in a somewhat less active optical-IR state than during all published multiwavelength campaigns when a flat-spectrum, partially self-absorbed jet has been suggested to extend from the radio to the mid-IR regime. Either interpretation is viable in the context of an internal shock model, where the jet’s spectral shape and variability are set by the power density spectrum of the shells’ Lorentz factor fluctuations. While strictly simultaneous radio–mm-IR observations are necessary to draw definitive conclusions for A0620–00, the data presented here, in combination with recent radio and sub-mm results from higher luminosity systems, demonstrate that jets from black hole X-ray binaries exhibit a high level of variability – either in flux density or intrinsic spectral shape, or both – across a wide spectrum of Eddington ratios. This is not in contrast with expectations from an internal shock model, where lower jet power systems can be expected to exhibit larger fractional variability owing to an overall decrease in synchrotron absorption.

Abstract:

We examine the co-evolution of galaxies and supermassive black holes in the simba cosmological hydrodynamic simulation. simba grows black holes via gravitational torque-limited accretion from cold gas and Bondi accretion from hot gas, while feedback from black holes is modelled in radiative and jet modes depending on the Eddington ratio (fEdd). simba shows generally good agreement with local studies of black hole properties, such as the black hole mass-stellar velocity dispersion (MBH-σ) relation, the black hole accretion rate versus star formation rate (BHAR-SFR), and the black hole mass function. MBH-σ evolves such that galaxies at a given MBH have higher σ at higher redshift, consistent with no evolution in MBH-M∗. For MBH ≤ 108 M⊙, fEdd is anticorrelated with MBH since the BHAR is approximately independent of MBH, while at higher masses fEdd-MBH flattens and has a larger scatter. BHAR versus SFR is invariant with redshift, but fEdd drops steadily with time at a given MBH, such that all but the most massive black holes are accreting in a radiatively efficient mode at z ≥ 2. The black hole mass function amplitude decreases with redshift and is locally dominated by quiescent galaxies for MBH > 108 M⊙, but for z≥ 1 star-forming galaxies dominate at all MBH. The z = 0 fEdd distribution is roughly lognormal with a peak at fEdd ≤ 0.01 as observed, shifting to higher fEdd at higher redshifts. Finally, we study the dependence of black hole properties with H i content and find that the correlation between gas content and SFR is modulated by black hole properties, such that higher SFR galaxies at a given gas content have smaller black holes with higher fEdd.