2009/06/30 by G. Ghisellini, L. Foschini, M. Volonteri +4 · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Accretion (finance) #Accretion disc #Astronomy and Astrophysical Research #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Black hole (networking) #Blazar #Luminosity #Quasar #Redshift #Spectral line #astro-ph.CO #astro-ph.HE
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1745-3933.2009.00716.x
5 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication as a letter in MNRAS after minor revision
arxiv created 2009/07/14 · openalex publication_date 2009/08/12 · arxiv updated 2015/05/13 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
Abstract A strong hard X-ray luminosity from a blazar flags the presence of a very powerful jet. If the jet power is in turn related to the mass accretion rate, the most luminous, hard X-ray blazars should pinpoint the largest accretion rates, and thus the largest black hole masses. These ideas are confirmed by the Swift satellite observations of the blazar S5 0014+813, at the redshift z= 3.366. Swift detected this source with all its three instruments, from the optical to the hard X-rays. Through the construction of its spectral energy distribution, we are confident that its optical-ultraviolet (UV) emission is thermal in origin. Associating it with the emission of a standard optically thick geometrically thin accretion disc, we find a black hole mass, M∼ 4 × 1010 M⊙, radiating at 40 per cent the Eddington value. The derived mass is among the largest ever found. Super-Eddington slim discs or thick discs with the presence of a collimating funnel can in principle reduce the black hole mass estimate, but tend to produce spectra bluer than observed.