Evidence for the astrophysics of rotational energy extraction from a supermassive black hole

Abstract

Theoretical models predict that the power of relativistic jets of active galactic nuclei arises from the spin of the central supermassive black holes. In the Blandford-Znajek mechanism{\cite{blandford77}}, if relativistic jets are powered by a Poynting flux, the jet power of Poynting flux (P$_{B}$) depends on the spin of the supermassive black hole. However, there has been a lack of observational evidence to support this theory. Here we report an analysis of archival observations of a sample of supermassive black holes. We find a significant correlation between the jet power of Poynting flux, as measured through the one-zone leptonic model\cite{Massaro2006, tramacere2009, Tramacere2011, Tramacere2020}, and the spin of supermassive black holes was measured by using X-ray Reflection Spectroscopy\cite{Reynolds2014, Vasudevan2016,Reynolds2019,Reynolds2021}, which is consistent with the theoretical model\cite{blandford77, Ghisellini2006} and numerical simulations{\cite{Koide2002,McKinney2005b, Tanabe2008}}. The jet power of Poynting flux can be explained by BZ mechanism without the need of other jet models. These results provide for the first time observational evidence that the rotational energy extraction from a supermassive black hole enhances the relativistic jets of Poynting flux.