The EB Correlation in Resolved Polarized Images: Connections to the Astrophysics of Black Holes

Razieh Emami; Sheperd S. Doeleman; Maciek Wielgus; Dominic Chang; Koushik Chatterjee; Randall Smith; Matthew Liska; James F. Steiner; Angelo Ricarte; Ramesh Narayan; Grant Tremblay; Douglas Finkbeiner; Lars Hernquist; Chi-Kwan Chan; Lindy Blackburn; Ben S. Prather; Paul Tiede; Avery E. Broderick; Mark Vogelsberger; Charles Alcock; Freek Roelofs

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/acdc96

The Astrophysical Journal (Jan 2023)

The EB Correlation in Resolved Polarized Images: Connections to the Astrophysics of Black Holes

Razieh Emami,
Sheperd S. Doeleman,
Maciek Wielgus,
Dominic Chang,
Koushik Chatterjee,
Randall Smith,
Matthew Liska,
James F. Steiner,
Angelo Ricarte,
Ramesh Narayan,
Grant Tremblay,
Douglas Finkbeiner,
Lars Hernquist,
Chi-Kwan Chan,
Lindy Blackburn,
Ben S. Prather,
Paul Tiede,
Avery E. Broderick,
Mark Vogelsberger,
Charles Alcock,
Freek Roelofs

Affiliations

Razieh Emami: ORCiD; Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; [email protected]
Sheperd S. Doeleman: ORCiD; Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; [email protected]; Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University , 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Maciek Wielgus: ORCiD; Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie , Auf dem Hügel 69, D-53121 Bonn, Germany
Dominic Chang: ORCiD; Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; [email protected]; Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University , 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Koushik Chatterjee: ORCiD; Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University , 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Randall Smith: ORCiD; Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; [email protected]
Matthew Liska: ORCiD; Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; [email protected]
James F. Steiner: ORCiD; Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; [email protected]
Angelo Ricarte: ORCiD; Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; [email protected]; Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University , 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Ramesh Narayan: ORCiD; Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; [email protected]; Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University , 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Grant Tremblay: Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; [email protected]
Douglas Finkbeiner: ORCiD; Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; [email protected]
Lars Hernquist: ORCiD; Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; [email protected]
Chi-Kwan Chan: ORCiD; Steward Observatory and Department of Astronomy, University of Arizona , 933 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA; Data Science Institute, University of Arizona , 1230 N. Cherry Avenue, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA; Program in Applied Mathematics, University of Arizona , 617 N. Santa Rita, Tucson, AZ 85721, USA
Lindy Blackburn: ORCiD; Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; [email protected]; Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University , 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Ben S. Prather: ORCiD; CCS-2, Los Alamos National Laboratory , P.O. Box 1663, Los Alamos, NM 87545, USA
Paul Tiede: ORCiD; Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; [email protected]; Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University , 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
Avery E. Broderick: ORCiD; Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics , 31 Caroline Street North, Waterloo, ON, N2L 2Y5, Canada; Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Waterloo , 200 University Avenue West, Waterloo, ON, N2L 3G1, Canada
Mark Vogelsberger: ORCiD; Department of Physics, Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology , Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
Charles Alcock: ORCiD; Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; [email protected]
Freek Roelofs: ORCiD; Center for Astrophysics ∣ Harvard & Smithsonian , 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA ; [email protected]; Black Hole Initiative at Harvard University , 20 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/acdc96
Journal volume & issue: Vol. 955, no. 1
p. 6

Abstract

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We present an in-depth analysis of the newly proposed correlation function in visibility space, between the E and B modes of linear polarization, hereafter the EB correlation, for a set of time-averaged general relativistic magnetohydrodynamical simulations compared with the phase map from different semianalytic models and the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) 2017 data for M87*. We demonstrate that the phase map of time-averaged EB correlation contains novel information that might be linked to black hole (BH) spin, accretion state, and electron temperature. A detailed comparison with a semianalytic approach with different azimuthal expansion modes shows that to recover the morphology of real/imaginary part of the correlation function and its phase, we require higher orders of azimuthal modes. To extract the phase features, we use Zernike polynomial reconstruction developing an empirical metric to break degeneracies between models with different BH spins that are qualitatively similar. We use a set of geometrical ring models with various magnetic and velocity field morphologies, showing that both the image space and visibility-based EB -correlation morphologies in magnetically arrested disk simulations can be explained with simple fluid and magnetic field geometries as used in ring models. Standard and normal evolutions by contrast are harder to model, demonstrating that the simple fluid and magnetic field geometries of ring models are not sufficient to describe them owing to higher Faraday rotation depths. A qualitative comparison with the EHT data demonstrates that some of the features in the phase of EB correlation might be well explained by the current models for BH spins and electron temperatures, while others require larger theoretical surveys.

Published in The Astrophysical Journal

ISSN: 1538-4357 (Online)
Publisher: IOP Publishing
Country of publisher: United Kingdom
LCC subjects: Science: Astronomy: Astrophysics
Website: https://iopscience.iop.org/journal/0004-637X

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