How to hide large-scale outflows: size constraints on the jets of Sgr A*

Authors
Publication date 2007
Journal Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume | Issue number 379
Pages (from-to) 1519-1532
Organisations
  • Faculty of Science (FNWI) - Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy (API)
Abstract
Despite significant strides made towards understanding accretion, outflow and emission processes in the Galactic Centre supermassive black hole Sagittarius A*, the presence of jets has been neither rejected nor proven. We investigate here whether the combined spectral and morphological properties of the source at radio through near-infrared wavelengths are consistent with the predictions for inhomogeneous jets. In particular, we construct images of jets at a wavelength of 7 mm based on models that are consistent with the spectrum of Sgr A*. We then compare these models through closure quantities with data obtained from the Very Long Baseline Array at 7 mm. We find that the best-fitting jet models give comparable or better fits than the best-fitting Gaussian models for the intrinsic source found in previous analyses. The best-fitting jet models are bipolar, are highly inclined to the line of sight (theta >~ 75°), may favour a position angle on the sky of 105°, and have compact bases with sizes of a few gravitational radii.
Document type Article
Note DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.12071.x; eprintid: arXiv:astro-ph/0702637
Published at https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2966.2007.12071.x
Published at http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2007MNRAS.379.1519M
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