Relativistic effects in millisecond pulsars and active galactic nuclei
Rapidly rotating neutron stars and the accretion disks around super-massive black holes at the nuclei of active galaxies were studied relativistically. The light curves of radiation from antipodal caps of rapidly rotating neutron stars were calculated with and without gravity. The light curves are found to depend strongly on the rotation speed and on the emission spectrum, and could become quite sharp. Gravity generally flattens the light curves; however, it does so less for rapidly rotating neutrons stars and can never flatten them enough to explain the absence of pulsations from low-mass x ray binary (LMXB's), the putative progenitors of millisecond pulsars. Spectral analysis of radiation from rapidly rotating neutron stars must take rotation effects into account; in LMXB's, pulses are expected to be sharpest for the hardest x rays. Line profiles for a Keplerian disk are calcuated, including relativistic effects. An excellent fit was found between the resulting double-peaked, asymmetric profiles and the observed H alpha line of an active galactic nucleus (AGN), Arp 102B. It was concluded that the line profile of Arp 102B shows the most convincing direct kinematic evidence for rotation in any AGN. A self-consistent model of a line-emitting accretion disk is presented which accounts for the observed properties of a small class of AGN's. The prime objects are Arp 102B and 3C 390.3, broad-line radio galaxies with double-peaked emission lines. The combination of ion torus and thin disk accounts for several additional properties of Arp 102B and 3C 390.3. The far-infrared peaks at 25 microns are in agreement with the predicted synchrotron self-absorption turnover for an ion torus. The outer radius of the hot ion torus, which is identified with the measured inner radius of the line-emitting thin disk, is consistent with the theoretical location of the onset of the Lightman-Eardley instability.
- Research Organization:
- Columbia Univ., New York, NY (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6101807
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Ph.D. Thesis
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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OPTICAL MONITORING OF THE BROAD-LINE RADIO GALAXY 3C 390.3