At the centre of M31 the nonthermal spectral index between λ20 cm and λ6 cm is −0.2. It slowly decreases along the southern arm and the northern filaments visible in Hα, but perpendicular to these features it increases much faster. The magnetic field runs along the arm and the filaments. These phenomena suggest the existence of a mono-energetic source of relativistic electrons in the nucleus.

The Very Large Array (VLA) has been used to carry out a high resolution, polarimetric study of the isolated non-thermal radio filaments, G0.08+0.15, and G359.96+0.09, also known as the Northern and Southern Threads, found near the Galactic Center (GC).

Recent X-ray astronomy satellite (e.g., Ginga, ASCA) has revealed that the center of our Galaxy is filled with a large amount of very hot plasmas (a few − 10 keV) on a scale of 100 pc, which are referred to as superhot plasmas. These plasmas are similar to the Galactic Ridge X-ray Emission (GRXE; cf Tanuma et al. 1997), but with larger gas pressure, and their formation mechanism has been a big puzzle. Here we propose a new model, magnetic reconnection model (Fig. 1), to explain the heating as well as the confinement of the Galactic center superhot plasmas, by performing MHD numerical simulations of magnetic reconnection in the situation suitable for the Galactic center. In our model, the magnetic field is amplified by the rotation of the Galactic gas disk (Fig. 2), and inflate from the disk to outside by the Parker instability. The inflating magnetic loop collides with ambient field lines, thus inducing the magnetic reconnection (the same process applied to the solar corona is shown in Yokoyama and Shibata 1995). In this model, energy release per single reconnection event is ΔE ≈ emVrec ≈ 2 × 1051 erg where em = P/β is the energy density of toroidal magnetic field, Vrec = λ2δ is the volume of the event, λ ≈ 60pc is the most unstable wavelength of the Parker instability, and δ ≈ 3pc is the thickness of the Galactic disk. The occurrence rate of this event is f ≈ N/Δτdep ≈ (3 × 104 yr)−1 where N = Vdisk/Vrec is the number of current sheets in the disk, Vdisk is the volume of the disk, and Δτdep is the time scale of energy deposit which is comparable with the time scale of the Galactic rotation. Then, the heating rate is h = fΔE = 2 × 1039 erg s−1 = 100L2–10keV.

Recent observations revealed that many kinds of astrophysical outflows have very similar structure, i.e. bipolar jets are surrounded by an equatorial (disk-shaped) wind or an expanded wind as in the outflows from YSO's, post AGB stars, pulsars or AGN's. One might think that this is very queer because the species of the central objects and the spatial scales are quite different among these objects. However this similarity is a result of self-organized magnetospheric equilibrium. In these systems, the rotating magnetic field plays an important role for the structure formation. In such systems, two components of the Lorentz force (the electrostatic force and the magnetic force arising from the toroidal component) dominate other forces in the region far distant from the rotation axis in spite of the difference of the acceleration mechanism of the flows. We can understand that such similarity of the structures is a nature of the plasma outflows itself.

We suppose relativistic, pressure-free, inviscid, resistive-less, stationary and axisymmetric MHD flows. In this case, MHD equations reduce to well known basic equations: the Bernoulli equation and the Grad-Shafranov equation. We should note that the special relativistic treatment is necessary to discuss the structure far beyond the light cylinder, even if the flow speed is not close to the light velocity.

The “force-free” (FF) approximation has often been evoked as a convenient means of treating electromagnetic processes of extracting rotational energy from pulsars and black holes through their magnetospheres, to energize a variety of activities in the environments. In order to produce relativistic jets with cylindrical topology like those associated with AGNs, some people further use this approximation for collimating relativistic outflows in the asymptotic domains from central sources. It is argued here that one can not collimate outflows by the FF magnetic field only, that is, the flow-field structure must asymptotically be conical far out from the light cylinder.

We present the results of 2.5-dimensional MHD simulations for jet formation from accretion disks in a situation such that not only ejection but also accretion of disk plasma are also included self-consistently. Although the jets in nonsteady MHD simulations (e.g., Uchida & Shibata 1985, Shibata & Uchida 1986, Matsumoto et al. 1996) have often been referred to as transient phenomena resulting from a special choice of initial conditions, we found that the characteristics of the nonsteady jets are very similar to those of steady jets: (1) The ejection point of the jet, which corresponds to slow magnetosonic point in steady MHD jet theory, is determined by the effective potential which results from the gravitational force and the centrifugal force along a field line (Blandford & Payne 1982). (2) The dependence of the velocity (vz) and mass outflow rate (Ṁω) on the initial magnetic field strength is about Ṁω ∝ B0 and vz ∝ (Ω2FB20/Ṁω)1/3, where B0 is an initial poloidal magnetic field strength, and ΩF is an ‘angular velocity of the field line’ which is nearly the same as the Keplerian angular velocity where the jet is ejected. These are consistent with those of 1D steady solution (Kudoh & Shibata 1997), although the explanation is a little complicated in the 2.5D case because of an avalanche-like accretion. We also confirm that the velocity of the jet is of order of the Keplerian velocity of the disk for a wide range of parameters. We conclude that the ejection mechanism of nonsteady jets found in the 2.5-dimensional simulations are understood with a previous theory which is studied on the assumption of steady state even when nonsteady avalanche-like accretions occur along the surface of disks.

Magnetically driven jets from accretion disks are considered to be the most promising models of astrophysical jets. Uchida & Shibata (1985) and Shibata & Uchida (1986) first carried out two-dimensional nonlinear MHD simulations of jet formation from a magnetized disk. Matsumoto et al. (1996) applied the Uchida-Shibata model to a gas torus in active galactic nuclei and showed that the surface layer of the torus accretes faster than the equatorial region like an avalanche because magnetic braking most effectively extracts angular momentum from that layer. A magnetized torus subjects to global non-axisymmetric instabilities (Curry & Pudritz 1996) and local magnetorotational instability (Balbus & Hawley 1991). We carried out three-dimensional global MHD simulations to show the non-axisymmetric effects on the torus, avalanche flow and jet formation.

We present the results of axisymmetric, two-dimentional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of weakly ionized gas torus threaded by large scale vertical magnetic fields. The gas torus corresponds to the 100pc scale circumnuclear torus observed by HST in nearby AGNs (e.g. NGC4261) or 1010M⊙ circumnuclear gas found by CO observations in luminous IR galaxies and quasars (e.g. Scoville et al. 1991). The initial state of simulation is a constant angular momentum polytropic torus threaded by uniform vertical magnetic fields. The torus is assumed to be rotating in a static, spherical hot halo. The model parameters are Eth = vs02/(γvk02) = 5 ×10−3 and Eth = vA02/vK02 = 6.6×10−6 where γ is the adiabatic index and vs0 and va0 are the sound speed and the Alfvén speed at r = r0 respectively.

To explain the activity of active galactic nuclei or compact X-ray sources, I consider a black hole magnetosphere in the center of these objects. The considering black hole magnetosphere is composed of a massive black hole with surrounding fluids and magnetic fields, and rotates rapidly. Because of the strong gravitation and the rapid rotation, both an accretion and a wind/jet would be generated from plasma sources (e.g., an accretion disk and its corona). The outgoing flow carries the angular momentum from the plasma source effectively, and then the accretion would go on stationary, releasing its gravitational energy. I assume that the magnetosphere is stationary and axisymmetric, and that the ideal MHD approximation is available for the streaming fluid. I discuss the thermal effects on MHD flows, and then I argue that the trans-fast MHD accretion solution can be broken by highly thermal effects.

A rotaing black hole has interesting features which can't be seen in nonrotating cases. The most characteristic one is to induce differential rotaions at angular velocity ω in inertial frames. Astrophysically it might have various impacts on its surrounding accretion plasmas. In a stationary and axisymmetric magnetohydrodynamic picture, it enables to directly extract the rotation energy of the black hole in the form of the outgoing Poynting flux. This process needs a condition ΩF(ΩH – ΩF) > 0 on the horizon r = rH, where ΩH ≡ ω|rH, and ΩF is the angular velocity of magnetosphere. However, it is not so clear how the extracted energy activates the magnetosphere. Recently, Kahnna and Camenzind (KC 1994,1995) proposed a possibility of a self-excitation mechanism of the electromagnetic fields, supported by a coupling between ω and the angular velocity of plasma Ω, through the magnetic diffusivity e of accretion plasmas. They called it ωΩ dynamo and tried to confirm this effect by numerical simulations. However no such growing cases were found in the initial conditions employed in the simulations (Brandenbrug 1996, KC 1996).

Masers provide a direct way of measuring magnetic fields in star-forming regions. OH ground-state masers at 18 cm wavelength exhibit strong circular polarization due to Zeeman splitting. The implied magnetic field strength is typically a few mG, which is sufficient for the field to be dynamically important, e.g. in channelling the observed bipolar outflows. Moreover there are indications that magnetic fields in maser regions are aligned with the large-scale Galactic magnetic field (Reid & Silverstein 1990), and that bipolar molecular outflows are also aligned with the local Galactic magnetic field (Cohen, Rowland & Blair 1984). Some theoretical work in fact suggests that the magnetic field is intimately connected with the origin of the molecular outflow (e.g. Pudritz & Norman 1983; Uchida & Shibata 1985). It is therefore important to investigate the magnetic field configuration in these regions in as much detail as possible.

After correcting spherical aberration in the Hubble Space Telescope in 1993, the central masses of galaxies can be measured with a resolution 5 to 10 times better than can be achieved at the best terrestrial sites. This improvement in resolution is decisive for detecting the gravitational signature of massive black holes in galaxy nuclei. The discovery of small (r ~ 100–200 pc) rotating gaseous and stellar disks in the centers of many early-type galaxies provides a new and efficient means for measuring the central potentials of galaxies. Concomitantly, VLBI observations of H2O masers in the nuclei of NGC 4258 and NGC 1068 revealed exquisite Keplerian rotation curves around massive black holes at radii as small as 0.1 pc. Recent terrestrial K-band measurements of the proper motions of stars in the cluster at the center of the galaxy provide irrefutable evidence for a black hole with a mass of 2.7 × 106M⊙. At the time of this symposium, the presence of central massive black holes has been established in 12 galaxies. The evidence suggests that there are massive black holes in the centers of all AGNs and in most, if not all, nucleated galaxies. The present data show at best a weak correlation between black hole mass and bulge luminosity.

Two classes of elliptical galaxies are now recognised (Kormendy & Bender 1996). Luminous ellipticals rotate slowly (Davies et al. 1983and tend to have boxy isophotes. Ellipticals fainter than L∗ exhibit an increasing tendency to be rotationally supported and to possess a stellar disk component. This dichotomy led Bender, Burstein & Faber (1992) to suggest that the physical variable that controls the ultimate nature of a forming galaxy is the degree of gaseous dissipation that occurs in the final merger it experiences. Low luminosity systems experience more dissipative mergers which generate high rotation, disky end products. As bigger galaxies are formed, the mergers become increasingly stellar, producing the classical slow rotating ellipticals. They termed this the gas/stellar continuum. This global dichotomy is also reflected in the bimodality of core morphologies of the heterogeneous sample of local ellipticals observed with HST. The low luminosity disky galaxies have ‘hard’ cores with a steep slope in the luminosity profile at small radii, whereas the luminous galaxies have ‘soft’ cores with flat profiles at small radii (e.g. Faber et al. 1997).

We present evidence that the edge-on E/S0 galaxy NGC 4342 harbours a massive BH of ~ 3.0 × 108M⊙. The evidence is based on a comparison of fully general three-integral models with both ground-based and HST/FOS kinematics.

We have obtained HST/FOS measurements of the nuclear kinematics of the gas disks in NGC 7052 and IC 1459. The spectra show steeper rotation curves and broader emission lines than ground-based data. Detailed modeling is in progress to constrain the mass of possible black holes.

Hubble Space Telescope images of the nucleus of M31 show a double-peaked structure with the primary peak being offset from the center by approximately 0.5″. We observed the central 13″ of M31 in the J, H, and Ks passbands to determine the nuclear structure in the near-infrared. Observations were taken at the MMT Observatory, using a low-order adaptive optics system, FASTTRAC II (Gray et. al. 1995). The diffraction limit for the system is 0.25″ in K band. PSF images showed correction to 0.5″ FWHM. Uncorrected images showed the seeing to be about 1″. The images were deconvolved using several methods to check for consistency. We used Iterative-Blind Deconvolution, Richardson-Lucy, and Wiener filter algorithms, getting similar results for each. Measurements suggest the PSF in the deconvolved images is approximately 0.35″ FWHM.

We present here axisymmetric two and three integral models of the S0 galaxy NGC 3115. The light and mass models are based on an application of the Multi-Gaussian Expansion (MGE) method on V band images of NGC 3115. The resulting model fits the photometry from the central HST pixel (0.045 arcsec) up to a radius of ~ 500 arcsec (combining a wide field image kindly provided by Cecilia Scorza, an HRCAM/CFHT image, and the WFPC2/HST image). The deprojection is analytical if each component corresponds to a 3D Gaussian. Here, the model is assumed axisymmetric. The analytical expression of the luminosity density serves as the input for all the dynamical models.

VLBA observations of the water megamaser in NGC 4258 reveal an extremely thin, nearly edge-on, slightly warped disk in Keplerian rotation around a 3.5 ± 0.1 × 107M⊙ central mass (Miyoshi et al. 1995). The masers extend from 0.13-0.26 pc (assuming a distance of 6.4 Mpc), and provide an unusual opportunity to probe active galactic nuclei (AGN) accretion on sub-parsec scales and in a system where the mass of the central engine and the geometry of the outer accretion disk are known with precision. Here, I discuss new 22 GHz, VLBA continuum observations of NGC 4258 in the context of advection-dominated accretion models. A more detailed discussion is in preparation (Herrnstein et al. 1998).

Massive black holes are now thought to be present at the centre of a fair fraction of nearby galaxies. The origin of these central dark masses is still unknown, although tentative explanations have been proposed in an attempt to reconcile non-active galaxies with AGNs and quasars. The activity of a galaxy may then mostly depend on the efficiency of gas accretion onto the central dark object. It is important to note that many of the galaxies which are today candidates for the presence of a massive black hole are spirals. In this context, bars should play an important role in the evolution (and formation?) of a central mass, since (1) they are present in a significant fraction of spirals, (2) they may be efficient drivers of gas accretion. If indeed most of present day galaxies hosts a central dark mass, then bars and black holes should coexist in a significant fraction of them. We examine here the cases of 3 edge-on galaxies which are candidates for the presence of a central black holes: NGC 4570, NGC 3115 and M 104.

NGC 6251 is an optically normal elliptical galaxy that hosts one of the most spectacular radio jets(Perley, Bridle, and Willis, 1984). This jet extends about 1 Mpc and its axis is roughly perpendicular to the central dust ring. NGC6251 was originally observed with HST in a survey of elliptical galaxies(Crane et al., 1993) and revealed an anamoly which was pursued in the investigation reported here.