When surrounded by a transparent emission region, black holes are expected to reveal a dark shadow caused by gravitational light bending and photon capture at the event horizon. To image and study this phenomenon, we have assembled the Event Horizon Telescope, a global very long baseline interferometry array observing at a wavelength of 1.3 mm. This allows us to reconstruct event-horizon-scale images of the supermassive black hole candidate in the center of the giant elliptical galaxy M87. We have resolved the central compact radio source as an asymmetric bright emission ring with a diameter of 42±3 μas, which is circular and encompasses a central depression in brightness with a flux ratio 10:1. The emission ring is recovered using different calibration and imaging schemes, with its diameter and width remaining stable over four different observations carried out in different days. Overall, the observed image is consistent with expectations for the shadow of a Kerr black hole as predicted by general relativity. The asymmetry in brightness in the ring can be explained in terms of relativistic beaming of the emission from a plasma rotating close to the speed of light around a black hole. We compare our images to an extensive library of ray-traced general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of black holes and derive a central mass of M=(6.5±0.7)×10 9 M e . Our radiowave observations thus provide powerful evidence for the presence of supermassive black holes in centers of galaxies and as the central engines of active galactic nuclei. They also present a new tool to explore gravity in its most extreme limit and on a mass scale that was so far not accessible.

Using flow models based on axisymmetric general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD) simulations, we construct radiative models for Sgr A*. Spectral energy distributions that include the effects of thermal synchrotron emission and absorption, and Compton scattering, are calculated using a Monte Carlo technique. Images are calculated using a ray-tracing scheme. All models are scaled so that the 230 GHz flux density is 3.4 Jy. The key model parameters are the dimensionless black hole spin a * , the inclination i, and the ion-to-electron temperature ratio T i /T e . We find that: (1) models with T i /T e = 1 are inconsistent with the observed submillimeter spectral slope; (2) the X-ray flux is a strongly increasing function of a * ; (3) the X-ray flux is a strongly increasing function of i; (4) 230 GHz image size is a complicated function of i, a * , and T i /T e , but the T i /T e = 10 models are generally large and at most marginally consistent with the 230 GHz VLBI data; (5) for models with T i /T e = 10 and i = 85 deg the event horizon is cloaked behind a synchrotron photosphere at 230 GHz and will not be seen by VLBI, but these models overproduce NIR and X-ray flux; (6) in all models whose SEDs are consistent with observations the event horizon is uncloaked at 230 GHz; (7) the models that are most consistent with the observations have a * ∼ 0.9. We finish with a discussion of the limitations of our model and prospects for future improvements.

We study how the matter dispersed when a supermassive black hole tidally disrupts a star joins an accretion flow. Combining a relativistic hydrodynamic simulation of the stellar disruption with a relativistic hydrodynamics simulation of the tidal debris motion, we track such a system until 80% of the stellar mass bound to the black hole has settled into an accretion flow. Shocks near the stellar pericenter and also near the apocenter of the most tightly-bound debris dissipate orbital energy, but only enough to make the characteristic radius comparable to the semi-major axis of the most-bound material, not the tidal radius as previously thought. The outer shocks are caused by post-Newtonian effects, both on the stellar orbit during its disruption and on the tidal forces. Accumulation of mass into the accretion flow is non-monotonic and slow, requiring 3 − 10× the orbital period of the most tightly-bound tidal streams, while the inflow time for most of the mass may be comparable to or longer than the mass accumulation time. Deflection by shocks does, however, remove enough angular momentum and energy from some mass for it to move inward even before most of the mass is accumulated into the accretion flow. Although the accretion rate rises sharply and then decays roughly as a power-law, its maximum is 0.1× the previous expectation, and the duration of the peak is 5× longer than previously predicted. The geometric mean of the black hole mass and stellar mass inferred

A tidal disruption event (TDE) takes place when a star passes near enough to a massive black hole to be disrupted. About half the star's matter is given elliptical trajectories with large apocenter distances, the other half is unbound. To "circularize", i.e., to form an accretion flow, the bound matter must lose a significant amount of energy, with the actual amount depending on the characteristic scale of the flow measured in units of the black hole's gravitational radius (∼ 10 51 (R/1000R g ) −1 erg). Recent numerical simulations (Shiokawa et al. 2015) have revealed that the circularization scale is close to the scale of the most-bound initial orbits, ∼ 10 3 M −2/3 BH,6.5 R g ∼ 10 15 M 1/3 BH,6.5 cm from the black hole, and the corresponding circularization energy dissipation rate is ∼ 10 44 M −1/6 BH,6.5 erg/s. We suggest that the energy liberated during circularization, rather then energy liberated by accretion onto the black hole, powers the observed optical TDE candidates. The observed rise times, luminosities, temperatures, emission radii, and line widths seen in these TDEs (e.g. Arcavi et al. 2014) are all more readily explained in terms of heating associated with circularization than in terms of accretion.

Context. The connection between black hole, accretion disk, and radio jet can be constrained best by fitting models to observations of nearby low-luminosity galactic nuclei, in particular the well-studied sources Sgr A* and M 87. There has been considerable progress in modeling the central engine of active galactic nuclei by an accreting supermassive black hole coupled to a relativistic plasma jet. However, can a single model be applied to a range of black hole masses and accretion rates? Aims. Here we want to compare the latest three-dimensional numerical model, originally developed for Sgr A* in the center of the Milky Way, to radio observations of the much more powerful and more massive black hole in M 87. Methods. We postprocess three-dimensional GRMHD models of a jet-producing radiatively inefficient accretion flow around a spinning black hole using relativistic radiative transfer and ray-tracing to produce model spectra and images. As a key new ingredient in these models, we allow the proton-electron coupling in these simulations depend on the magnetic properties of the plasma. Results. We find that the radio emission in M 87 is described well by a combination of a two-temperature accretion flow and a hot single-temperature jet. Most of the radio emission in our simulations comes from the jet sheath. The model fits the basic observed characteristics of the M 87 radio core: it is "edge-brightened", starts subluminally, has a flat spectrum, and increases in size with wavelength. The best fit model has a mass-accretion rate ofṀ ∼ 9 × 10 −3 M yr −1 and a total jet power of P j ∼ 10 43 erg s −1 . Emission at λ = 1.3 mm is produced by the counter-jet close to the event horizon. Its characteristic crescent shape surrounding the black hole shadow could be resolved by future millimeter-wave VLBI experiments. Conclusions. The model was successfully derived from one for the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way by appropriately scaling mass and accretion rate. This suggests the possibility that this model could also apply to a wider range of low-luminosity black holes.