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Title: Constraints on the Mass Accretion Rate onto the Supermassive Black Hole of Cygnus A Using the Submillimeter Array
Abstract We present the first detailed polarimetric studies of Cygnus A at 230 GHz with the Submillimeter Array (SMA) to constrain the mass accretion rate onto its supermassive black hole. We detected the polarized emission associated with the core at a fractional polarization of . This low fractional polarization suggests that the polarized emission is highly depolarized. One of the possible explanations is due to a significant variance in the Faraday rotation measure within the synthesized beam. By assuming the Faraday depolarization caused by inhomogeneous column density of the magnetized plasma associated with the surrounding radiatively-inefficient accretion flow within the SMA beam, we derived the constraint on the mass accretion rate to be larger than 0.15 yr −1 at the Bondi radius. The derived constraint indicates that an adiabatic inflow–outflow solution or an advection-dominated accretion flow should be preferable as the accretion flow model in order to explain the jet power of Cygnus A.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
2034306
PAR ID:
10315623
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
The Astrophysical Journal
Volume:
911
Issue:
1
ISSN:
0004-637X
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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