A strong magnetic field around the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Galaxy

被引：362

作者：

Eatough, R. P. ^{[1
]}

Falcke, H. ^{[1
,2
,3
]}

Karuppusamy, R. ^{[1
]}

Lee, K. J. ^{[1
]}

Champion, D. J. ^{[1
]}

Keane, E. F. ^{[4
]}

Desvignes, G. ^{[1
]}

Schnitzeler, D. H. F. M. ^{[1
]}

Spitler, L. G. ^{[1
]}

Kramer, M. ^{[1
,4
]}

Klein, B. ^{[1
,5
]}

Bassa, C. ^{[4
]}

Bower, G. C. ^{[6
]}

Brunthaler, A. ^{[1
]}

Cognard, I. ^{[7
,8
]}

Deller, A. T. ^{[3
]}

Demorest, P. B. ^{[9
]}

Freire, P. C. C. ^{[1
]}

Kraus, A. ^{[1
]}

Lyne, A. G. ^{[4
]}

Noutsos, A. ^{[1
]}

Stappers, B. ^{[4
]}

Wex, N. ^{[1
]}

机构：

[1] Max Planck Inst Radioastron, D-53121 Bonn, Germany

[2] Radboud Univ Nijmegen, Dept Astrophys, Inst Math Astrophys & Particle Phys, NL-6500 GL Nijmegen, Netherlands

[3] ASTRON, NL-7990 AA Dwingeloo, Netherlands

[4] Univ Manchester, Sch Phys & Astron, Jodrell Bank Ctr Astrophys, Manchester M13 9PL, Lancs, England

[5] Bonn Rhein Sieg Univ Appl Sci, D-53757 St Augustin, Germany

[6] Univ Calif Berkeley, Dept Astron, Berkeley, CA 94720 USA

[7] Univ Orleans, CNRS, LPC2E, F-45071 Orleans, France

[8] Nancay Paris Observ, F-18330 Nancay, France

[9] Natl Radio Astron Observ, Charlottesville, VA 22903 USA

来源：

NATURE | 2013年 / 501卷 / 7467期

基金：

欧洲研究理事会; 美国国家科学基金会;

关键词：

SAGITTARIUS-A-ASTERISK; GALACTIC-CENTER; LINEAR-POLARIZATION; FARADAY-ROTATION; CENTRAL PARSEC; ACCRETION; RADIO; DISCOVERY; EMISSION; DISKS;

D O I：

10.1038/nature12499

中图分类号：

O [数理科学和化学]; P [天文学、地球科学]; Q [生物科学]; N [自然科学总论];

学科分类号：

07 ; 0710 ; 09 ;

摘要：

Earth's nearest candidate supermassive black hole lies at the centre of the Milky Way(1). Its electromagnetic emission is thought to be powered by radiatively inefficient accretion of gas from its environment(2), which is a standard mode of energy supply for most galactic nuclei. X-ray measurements have already resolved a tenuous hot gas component from which the black hole can be fed(3). The magnetization of the gas, however, which is a crucial parameter determining the structure of the accretion flow, remains unknown. Strong magnetic fields can influence the dynamics of accretion, remove angular momentum from the infalling gas(4), expel matter through relativistic jets(5) and lead to synchrotron emission such as that previously observed(6-8). Here we report multi-frequency radio measurements of a newly discovered pulsar close to the Galactic Centre(9-12) and show that the pulsar's unusually large Faraday rotation (the rotation of the plane of polarization of the emission in the presence of an external magnetic field) indicates that there is a dynamically important magnetic field near the black hole. If this field is accreted down to the event horizon it provides enough magnetic flux to explain the observed emission-from radio to X-ray wavelengths-from the black hole.

引用

页码：391 / 394

页数：4

共 30 条

[1]

[Anonymous], ASTRON TELEGRAM

[2] Chandra X-ray spectroscopic imaging of Sagittarius A* and the central parsec of the Galaxy [J].