[ITAL]Chandra[/ITAL] Limits on X-Ray Emission Associated with the Supermassive Black Holes in Three Giant Elliptical Galaxies

2001/06/19 by Michael Loewenstein, M. Loewenstein, R. F. Mushotzky +7 · 147 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Black hole (networking) #Elliptical galaxy #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Galaxy #Hubble sequence #Intermediate-mass black hole #Physics #Supermassive black hole #Surface brightness #astro-ph

paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/323157

published in The Astrophysical Journal 555(1), L21-L24 (IOP Publishing) · 12 pages including two embedded figures, accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

arxiv created 2001/06/19 · openalex publication_date 2001/07/01 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05

Abstract

Elliptical galaxy nuclei are the sites of the largest black holes known but typically show little or no nuclear activity. We investigate this extreme quiescence using Chandra X-Ray Observatory observations of the giant elliptical galaxies NGC 1399, NGC 4472, and NGC 4636. The unique Chandra imaging power enables us to place upper limits of 7.3, 15, and 28 × 10-9LEdd for the ~108-109 M☉ black holes in NGC 1399, NGC 4472, and NGC 4636, respectively. The corresponding radiative efficiencies in this band are 4.1, 24, and 620 × 10-6 using Bondi accretion rates derived from the Chandra hot interstellar gas surface brightness profiles. These limits are inconsistent with basic advection-dominated accretion flow models for NGC 1399 and NGC 4472, indicating accretion onto the black hole at lesssim10% of the Bondi rate.

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