Probing radiation micro-physics in M 87 I. Total intensity and broad-band spectra

Abstract

Next generation Very Long Baseline Interferometers (VLBI) will provide dense sampling of the Fourier space together with high signal to noise ratios allowing to reliably observe and image faint jet structure in M 87 at mm-wavelength. The proposed next generation Event Horizon Telescope (ngEHT) and next generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) offers the unique capability to simultaneously resolve and image the accretion flow around the supermassive black hole in M 87 together with the jet launching and acceleration zone. In order to explore these capabilities and to provide theoretical expectations we perform general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of accretion on to black holes and jet launching. M 87 has been the target for multiple observations across the entire electromagnetic spectrum. Among these VLBI observations provide unique capability to resolve the jet structure down to several gravitational radii. In this work we provide possible observable signatures which will allow us to distinguish between different electron heating models and particle distributions. We use general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics and simulate the accretion of the magnetised plasma onto Kerr-black holes in 3D. The multi-frequency radiative signatures of these simulations are computed taking different electron heating and distribution functions into account. The results of our simulations show that with a dynamical range of $1\times 10^4$ and a frequency range from 86 GHz to 345 GHz observations with future VLBI arrays have the potential to tell turbulent and magnetic reconnection electron heating and the electron distribution function apart.