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Phasing ALMA for VLBI: Building an Event Horizon Telescope

Delve into the groundbreaking research of the Event Horizon Telescope probing black hole mysteries like the existence of event horizons, general relativity near black holes, accretion processes, and more. Explore the latest discoveries and big questions in black hole astronomy with ALMA.

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Phasing ALMA for VLBI: Building an Event Horizon Telescope

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  1. Phasing ALMA for VLBI:Building an Event Horizon Telescope

  2. Big Questions • Is there an Event Horizon? • Does GR hold near BH? • How does matter accrete/outflow near a BH? • Do Black Holes have spin? • How do Black Holes launch jets? • EHT addresses ASTRO 2010 questions and discovery areas: • How do black holes work and influence their surroundings? • What controls the mass-energy-chemical cycles within galaxies? • What are the connections between dark and luminous matter? • Time domain Astronomy.

  3. SgrA*: Best Case for a SMBH • Stellar orbits approaching within 45 AU. • Proper motions < 1km/s: M>10^5 Msol (Backer & Sramek 1999, Reid & Brunthaler 2004) • Short time scale X-ray flares (300 sec rise). • IF flares with modulation (a>0). Ghez et al 2005 VLT: Genzel et al 2003 Baganoff et al 2001

  4. Resolving Rsch-scale structures Falcke Melia Agol Spinning (a=1) Non-spinning (a=0) • SgrA* has the largest apparent Schwarzschild radius of any BH candidate. • Rsch = 10μas • Shadow = 5.2 Rsch (non-spinning) = 4.5 Rsch (maximally spinning)

  5. Scattering towards the GC ISM Scattering: Θscat ~ λ2 Need to observe with VLBI at short wavelengths. Expected intrinsic size at 1.3mm is ~35 micro arcsec. 7mm: Bower et al 3mm: Shen et al

  6. 1.3mmλ Observations of SgrA* 908km 4030km 4630km Builds on long history of SgrA* VLBI and mmVLBI.

  7. SMT-JCMT SMT-CARMA Determining the size of SgrA* θOBS = 43μas (+14, -8) θINT = 37μas (+16, -10) JCMT-CARMA 1 Rsch = 10μas

  8. Alternatives to a MBH • Most condensations of smaller mass objects evaporate on short timescales. • Current obs imply Tevap<500 yrs. • Boson Star is a remaining ‘exotic’ possibility where R=Rsch + epsilon. • Depends on Boson mass. Proof of an Event Horizon? • If no EH, then the ‘surface’ will radiate inthe NIR, but none seen. (Broderick, Loeb, Narayan 2009)

  9. Constraining RIAF Models SgrA* 10-8 Eddington Inclination constrained to be >30 degrees: disk not ‘face-on’. Broderick, Fish, Doeleman & Loeb (2009)

  10. April 2009: SgrA* Flare on Rsch scales Fish et al, ApJL, v727, L36, 2011

  11. Tighter Constraints on BH spin. Broderick, Fish, Doeleman & Loeb, arXiv:1011.2770

  12. Time Variable Structures • Variabilty in NIR, x-ray, submm, radio. • VLBI caught SgrA* ‘before’ and ‘after’ flare. • Probe of metrics near BH, and of BH spin. • Requires non-imaging analysis. • Look for signatures of ‘hot spot’ flare models.

  13. Hot Spot Model for SgrA* Flares

  14. Tracing Black Hole Orbits with VLBI Steeger et al

  15. Measuring Black Hole Orbits with VLBI Spin = 0.9 Hot-spot at ~ 6Rg Period = 27 min.

  16. VLBA Movie of M87 @ 43 GHz (7 mm)Craig Walker et al. 2008 6.4 billion solar mass BH, FERMI & TeV source Beam: 0.43x0.21 mas 0.2mas = 0.016pc = 60Rs 1mas/yr = 0.25c

  17. Magnetically Driven Jets

  18. 1.3mmVLBI detection of M87: Jet Models a=0.998, =25deg Broderick & Loeb (2009) Gaussian size: 38 uas Rsch = 7.9 uas Shadow = 41 uas ISCO = 58 uas

  19. Building the Event Horizon TelescopeAstro2010 Roadmap Phase I • Adding Telescopes: 7 station array. • VLBI backends/recorders that support > 16Gb/s. • Central wideband correlator (up to 64Gb/s) [ATI prop]. • Phased Array processors (SMA, ALMA, PdeBure, CARMA) [MRI prop] • Leverage ALMA receivers for EHT [AAG prop]. • Procure Hydrogen Masers. • Recording media for 7-station 8Gb/s array • New site studies • Turn-key operations: remote operations • Project management, operations. • Endorsed by RMS Panel of US Decadal Review

  20. New (sub)mm VLBI Sites Current: ARO/SMT + CARMA + SMA + JCMT + CSO Phase 1: 7 Telescopes (+ IRAM, PdB, LMT, Chile/ALMA) Phase 2: 9 Telescopes (+ Spole, Haystack) Phase 3: 13 Telescopes (+ NZ, Africa,SEST)

  21. Progression to an Image GR Model 7 Stations 13 Stations

  22. Testing the No-Hair Theorem Johannsen & Psaltis 2009; Broderick et al • Test by perturbing quadrupole: Q’=-a2/M2 + e e=1 e=0 e=-1

  23. Phasing Arrays: SMA, CARMA this month. SMA: Weintroub, Primiani, et al CARMA: Wright, McMahon, Dexter, et al Text

  24. Phasing ALMA • Single most important objective for EHT. • Increases resolution by x2, sensitivity by x10. • Allows detection in 10s to all other EHT sites.

  25. ALMA Vitals • 64 x 12m dishes: 96m effective dish. • Excellent site • SEFD (1.3mm) ~ 100Jy • SEFD (3mm) ~ 70Jy • SEFD (7mm) ~ 40Jy • VLBA-ALMA baselines x10 sensitivity of single VLBA-VLBA baseline at 3mm. • N-S uv coverage to VLBA sites is roughly equivalent to VLBA_MK to VLBA_SC in length. 25

  26. Design for Real-time ALMA phasing 26

  27. Phasing ALMA on Science Targets • Use n(n-1)/2 baseline phases to solve for (n-1) antenna phases. • SNR for antenna phase: • With full BW in 10 sec: SNRa = 850 for SgrA* !! • Antenna solutions remain in high SNR regime for sources as faint as 100 mJy. • For fainter sources slew to phase calibrators.

  28. ALMA Phasing Timeline 2008-2010: Phasing Architecture designed in consultation with ALMA technical teams. Jan 2011: Endorsement by ALMA Board, MRI proposal submitted to NSF - anticipated start August 2011 2011-2013: New hardware (PIC - Fig 4) designed and fabricated, ALMA VLBI software functional, VLBI recorders installed. 2013-1014: Hydrogen maser installed, VLBI software complete, hardware tested, first VLBI observations with phased ALMA. 2014-2015: Commissioning and availability of ALMA phasing system to community.

  29. Non EHT Science with phased ALMA • M87: jet genesis, collimation - 3mm/7mm VLBI • AGN: polarization, pan-chromatic studies • SiO maser astrometry: • link IR-radio at Galactic Center • possible distance to LMC • Gravitational Lenses: central images • High resolution molecular absorption: • PKS 1830-211: isotopic abundances, evolution of fundamental constants • Use phased ALMA for pulsar/magnetar science. 29

  30. Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration MIT Haystack: Shep Doeleman, Alan Rogers, Vincent Fish, et al U. Arizona Steward Obs: Lucy Ziurys, Robert Freund, Dan Marrone Harvard CfA: Jonathan Weintroub, Jim Moran, Ray Blundell, et al CARMA: Dick Plambeck, Mel Wright, David Woody, Geoff Bower NRAO: John Webber, Ray Escoffier, Rich Lacasse Caltech Submillimeter Observatory: Richard Chamberlin UC Berkeley SSL: Dan Werthimer MPIfR: Thomas Krichbaum, Anton Zensus, Alan Roy, et al IRAM: Michael Bremer, Karl Schuster APEX: Karl Menten, Michael Lindqvist James Clerk Maxwell Telescope: Remo Tilanus, Per Friberg ASIAA: Paul Ho, Makoto Inoue NAOJ: Mareki Honma

  31. Summary • EHT results confirm Rsch structures in SgrA* and M87. • EHT has detected SgrA* closure phase and variability. • Technical path for Phase I of EHT clear. • Phasing ALMA transforms EHT within 3/4 years. • International team assembled for ALMA phasing project • Imaging an Event Horizon and observing BH orbits are within reach in <5 years. • Other phased array science enabled: lower frequency VLBI studies and pulsar/magnetar research.

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