Supermassive black holes (SMBH) are essential for the production of jets in radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN). Theoretical models based on Blandford & Znajek extract the rotational energy from a Kerr black hole, which could be the case for NGC1052, to launch these jets. This requires magnetic fields of the order of 103G to 104G. We imaged the vicinity of the SMBH of the AGN NGC1052 with the Global Millimetre VLBI Array and found a bright and compact central feature, smaller than 1.9 light days (100 Schwarzschild radii) in radius. Interpreting this as a blend of the unresolved jet bases, we derive the magnetic field at 1 Schwarzschild radius to lie between 200 G and ~80000 G consistent with Blandford & Znajek models.
@article{arxiv.1605.07100,
title = {A Highly Magnetized Twin-Jet Base Pinpoints a Supermassive Black Hole},
author = {A. -K. Baczko and R. Schulz and M. Kadler and E. Ros and M. Perucho and T. P. Krichbaum and M. Böck and M. Bremer and C. Grossberger and M. Lindqvist and A. P. Lobanov and K. Mannheim and I. Martí-Vidal and C. Müller and J. Wilms and J. A. Zensus},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1605.07100},
year = {2016}
}
Comments
8 pages, 7 figures, accepted by Astronomy & Astrophysics