Event-horizon-scale structure of M87 in the middle of the VHE enhancement in 2012

          @misc{ pirsa_PIRSA:14110084,
            doi = {10.48660/14110084},
            url = {https://pirsa.org/14110084},
            author = {Akiyama, Kazunori},
            keywords = {Strong Gravity},
            language = {en},
            title = {Event-horizon-scale structure of M87 in the middle of the VHE enhancement in 2012},
            publisher = {Perimeter Institute},
            year = {2014},
            month = {nov},
            note = {PIRSA:14110084 see, \url{https://pirsa.org}}
          }
          

Abstract

The radio galaxy M87 is an excellent laboratory for investigating the formation process of the relativistic jet and the production mechanism of high energy particles and photons in the vicinity of super-massive black holes. VLBI observations at 1.3 mm can address at least two issues concerning the fundamental nature of M87. The first is the event-horizon-scale structure of the jet launching region, and another one is the production mechanism of very high energy (VHE; > 100 GeV) photons at there. In this talk, I report on new 1.3 mm VLBI observations of M87 with the EHT during the VHE enhancement in 2012. These observations provide the first measurements of closure phase, imposing new constraints on accretion-disk/jet models for M87, and also the first constraints on the innermost structure of the relativistic jet on scales of a few Rs during VHE variability. I discuss results and their implications for jet/disk models and also VHE models for M87, as well as future prospects of EHT observations of M87.