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The origin of Keplerian megamaser disks

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 July 2012

Mark Wardle  and
Farhad Yusef-Zadeh
Mark Wardle
Affiliation:
Department of Physics & Astronomy and Research Centre for Astronomy, Astrophysics & Astrophotonics, Macquarie University, Sydney NSW 2109, Australia email: mark.wardle@mq.edu.au
Farhad Yusef-Zadeh
Affiliation:
Department of Physics & Astronomy, Northwestern University, Evanston IL 60208, USA email: zadeh@northwestern.edu
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Abstract

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Several examples of thin, Keplerian, sub-parsec megamaser disks have been discovered in the nuclei of active galaxies and used to precisely determine the mass of their host black holes. We show that there is an empirical linear correlation between the disk radius and black hole mass and that such disks are naturally formed as molecular clouds pass through the galactic nucleus and temporarily engulf the central supermassive black hole. For initial cloud column densities below about 1023.5 cm−2 the disk is non-self gravitating, but for higher cloud columns the disk would fragment and produce a compact stellar disk similar to that observed around Sgr A* at the galactic centre.

Keywords

accretionaccretion disksmasersGalaxy: centergalaxies: Seyfert
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 8 , Symposium S287: Cosmic Masers - from OH to H0 , January 2012 , pp. 354 - 355
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2012

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