Galaxy formation is significantly modulated by energy output from supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies which grow in highly efficient luminous quasar phases. The timescale on which black holes transition into and out of such phases is, however, unknown. We present the first measurement of the shutdown timescale for an individual quasar using Suzaku and XMM-Newton X-ray observations of the nearby galaxy IC 2497, which hosted a luminous quasar no more than ~230,000 years ago that is still seen as a light echo in 'Hanny's Voorwerp', but whose presentday radiative output is lower by at least 2 and more likely by over 4 orders of magnitude. This extremely rapid shutdown provides new insights into the physics of accretion in supermassive black holes, and may signal a transition of the accretion disk to a radiatively inefficient state. These results were first presented by [1].
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29 March 2012
SUZAKU 2011: Exploring the X-ray Universe: Suzaku and Beyond
20–22 July 2011
Palo Alto, California, USA
Research Article|
March 29 2012
Probing quasar shutdown timescales with Hanny's Voorwerp
Daniel A. Evans;
Daniel A. Evans
Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138,
USA
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Shanil Virani;
Shanil Virani
Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Yale University, P.O. Box 208121, New Haven, CT 06520,
USA
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C. Megan Urry;
C. Megan Urry
Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Yale University, P.O. Box 208121, New Haven, CT 06520,
USA
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William C. Keel;
William C. Keel
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Alabama, Box 870324,Tuscaloosa, AL 35487,
USA
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Priyamvada Natarajan;
Priyamvada Natarajan
Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Yale University, P.O. Box 208121, New Haven, CT 06520,
USA
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Chris J. Lintott;
Chris J. Lintott
Astrophysics Department, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3RH,
United Kingdom
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Anna Manning;
Anna Manning
Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Alabama, Box 870324,Tuscaloosa, AL 35487,
USA
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Paolo Coppi;
Paolo Coppi
Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics, Yale University, P.O. Box 208121, New Haven, CT 06520,
USA
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Sugata Kaviraj;
Sugata Kaviraj
Astrophysics Department, University of Oxford, Oxford, OX1 3RH,
United Kingdom
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Steven P. Bamford;
Steven P. Bamford
Centre for Astronomy & Particle Theory, University of Nottingham, University Park, Nottingham NG7 2RD,
United Kingdom
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Gyula I. G. Józsa;
Gyula I. G. Józsa
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Postbus 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo,
Netherlands
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Michael Garrett;
Michael Garrett
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Postbus 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo,
Netherlands
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Hanny van Arkel;
Hanny van Arkel
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Postbus 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo,
Netherlands
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Pamela Gay;
Pamela Gay
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Postbus 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo,
Netherlands
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Lucy Fortson
Lucy Fortson
School of Physics and Astronomy, 116 Church Street S.E., University of Minnesota/Twin Cities, Minneapolis, MN 55455,
USA
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AIP Conf. Proc. 1427, 193–200 (2012)
Citation
Daniel A. Evans, Kevin Schawinski, Shanil Virani, C. Megan Urry, William C. Keel, Priyamvada Natarajan, Chris J. Lintott, Anna Manning, Paolo Coppi, Sugata Kaviraj, Steven P. Bamford, Gyula I. G. Józsa, Michael Garrett, Hanny van Arkel, Pamela Gay, Lucy Fortson; Probing quasar shutdown timescales with Hanny's Voorwerp. AIP Conf. Proc. 29 March 2012; 1427 (1): 193–200. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3696176
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