A Likely Supermassive Black Hole Revealed by Its Einstein Radius in Hubble Frontier Fields Images

Chen, Mandy C.; Broadhurst, Tom; Lim, Jeremy; Diego, J. M.; Ohyama, Youichi; Ford, H. C.; Benı́tez, N.

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aad17b

Cited by 12 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 65 publications

(89 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…However, they can reveal their presence through the gravitational distortion of (razor-thin) lensing arcs, which is the phenomenon we investigate in this paper. Interestingly, as this paper was close to completion, Chen et al (2018) reported a possible detection of an SMBH of mass 8.4 +4.3 −1.8 × 10 9 M offset by 4.4 ± 0.3 kpc from the centre of the main lensing galaxy, the brightest cluster galaxy of MACS J1149+2223.5 at z = 0.54. The presence of a SMBH is inferred through a kink-like distortion in one of the multiply-lensed images of the background source.…”

supporting

confidence: 65%

Constraining the mass density of free-floating black holes using razor-thin lensing arcs

Banik

Bosch

Tremmel

et al. 2018

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Strong lensing of active galactic nuclei in the radio can result in razor-thin arcs, with a thickness of less than a milli-arcsecond, if observed at the resolution achievable with very long baseline interferometry (VLBI). Such razor-thin arcs provide a unique window on the coarseness of the matter distribution between source and observer. In this paper, we investigate to what extent such razor-thin arcs can constrain the number density and mass function of 'free-floating' black holes, defined as black holes that do not, or no longer, reside at the centre of a galaxy. These can be either primordial in origin or arise as by-products of the evolution of super-massive black holes in galactic nuclei. When sufficiently close to the line of sight, free-floating black holes cause kink-like distortions in the arcs, which are detectable by eye in the VLBI images as long as the black hole mass exceeds ∼ 1000 Solar masses. Using a crude estimate for the detectability of such distortions, we analytically compute constraints on the matter density of free-floating black holes resulting from null-detections of distortions along a realistic, fiducial arc, and find them to be comparable to those from quasar milli-lensing. We also use predictions from a large hydrodynamical simulation for the demographics of free-floating black holes that are not primordial in origin, and show that their predicted mass density is roughly four orders of magnitude below the constraints achievable with a single razor-thin arc.

show abstract

supporting

confidence: 65%

Constraining the mass density of free-floating black holes using razor-thin lensing arcs

Banik

Bosch

Tremmel

et al. 2018

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Nevertheless, the detection of SMBHs in normal galaxies are still very difficult provided that vast majority of them are quiescent and faraway. Although some new approaches seem promising to detect SMBHs at cosmological distances, such as gravitational lensing (e.g., Mao et al 2001;Hezaveh et al 2015;Chen et al 2018) and future gravitational wave observations of SMBH mergers or the inspiral of compact stellar remnants consumed by SMBH, they are not so efficient and practical for the time being. Heaven will always leave a door open, the so-called tidal disruption event (TDE) could offer us the greatest chance to catch sight of these dormant SMBHs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Infrared Echo and Late-stage Rebrightening of Nuclear Transient Ps1-10adi: Exploring the Torus with Tidal Disruption Events in Active Galactic Nuclei

Jiang

Wang

Mou

et al. 2019

ApJ

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Tidal disruption events (TDEs) in active galactic nuclei (AGNs) have been overlooked for a long time but tentatively been investigated recently. We report the discovery of a long-lasting luminous mid-infrared (mid-IR) flare in PS1-10adi, which is a newly-identified highly energetic transient event occurred in AGN. The IR luminosity of PS1-10adi, as well as other analogous events, are at least one order of magnitude higher than all known supernova, but can be well interpreted as the dust echoes of TDEs, whose ultra-high IR energy is reprocessed from the dusty torus around the black hole. The torus dust is sublimating during the early stage of the outburst and probably lead to the observed rapid emergence of Fe II lines. Moreover, the UV-optical rebrightening and contemporaneous X-ray onset after ∼ 1500 rest-frame days since the optical peak is also an intriguing feature of PS1-10adi, which could be attributed to the interaction between the high-velocity outflow and torus. We suggest that the luminous IR echo is a very typical phenomenon of TDEs in AGNs and may provide us an ideal opportunity to explore the torus properties.

show abstract

“…Given the clear cut prediction of the absence of the central image, various groups including Keeton (2003), Chen et al (2018), andInada et al (2008) have looked at optical and radio data of distant galaxies (z∼0.2-1) to search for the central image. Multiple studies have been focused on lensed radio galaxies as there is no contamination by the lens itself (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gravitational lensing effects of supermassive black holes in cluster environments

Mahler,

Natarajan,

Jauzac

et al. 2022

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This study explores the gravitational lensing effects of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) in galaxy clusters. While the presence of central SMBHs in galaxies is firmly established, recent work from high-resolution simulations predict the existence of an additional population of wandering SMBHs. Though the masses of these SMBHs are a minor perturbation on the larger scale and individual galaxy scale dark matter components in the cluster, they can impact statistical lensing properties and individual lensed image configurations. Probing for these potentially observable signatures, we find that SMBHs imprint detectable signatures in rare, higher-order strong lensing image configurations although they do not manifest any statistically significant detectable evidence in either the magnification distribution or the integrated shear profile. Investigating specific lensed image geometries, we report that a massive, near point-like, potential of an SMBH causes the following detectable effects: (ii) image splitting leading to the the generation of extra images; (ii) positional and magnification asymmetries in multiply imaged systems; and (iii) the apparent disappearance of a lensed counter-image. Of these, image splitting inside the cluster tangential critical curve, is the most prevalent notable observational signature. We demonstrate these possibilities in two cases of observed giant arcs in SGAS J003341.5+024217 and RX J1347.5-1145, wherein specific image configurations seen can be reproduced with SMBHs. Future observations with high-resolution instrumentation (e.g. MAVIS-Very Large Telescope, MICADO-Extremely Large Telescope, and the upgraded ngVLA, along with data from the Euclid & Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescopes and the Rubin LSST Observatory are likely to allow us to probe these unique yet rare SMBHs lensing signatures.

show abstract

A Likely Supermassive Black Hole Revealed by Its Einstein Radius in Hubble Frontier Fields Images

Cited by 12 publications

References 65 publications

Constraining the mass density of free-floating black holes using razor-thin lensing arcs

Constraining the mass density of free-floating black holes using razor-thin lensing arcs

Infrared Echo and Late-stage Rebrightening of Nuclear Transient Ps1-10adi: Exploring the Torus with Tidal Disruption Events in Active Galactic Nuclei

Gravitational lensing effects of supermassive black holes in cluster environments

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About