Observing black holes spin

Reynolds, C. S.

doi:10.1038/s41550-018-0665-z

Cited by 175 publications

(146 citation statements)

References 104 publications

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“…There are few robust estimates of SMBH spins available in the literature, but the available data shows a general trend of more massive black holes spinning more slowly (Brenneman 2013;Reynolds 2013;Vasudevan et al 2016;Reynolds 2019). Selection effects mean that a lot of low-spin SMBHs are undetected (Vasudevan et al 2016), although it is impossible to predict what mass range they might fall in.…”

Section: Discussion and Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Slow and massive: low-spin SMBHs can grow more

Zubovas

King

2019

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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Active galactic nuclei (AGN) probably control the growth of their host galaxies via feedback in the form of wide-angle wind-driven outflows. These establish the observed correlations between supermassive black hole (SMBH) masses and host galaxy properties, e.g. the spheroid velocity dispersion σ. In this paper we consider the growth of the SMBH once it starts driving a large-scale outflow through the galaxy. To clear the gas and ultimately terminate further growth of both the SMBH and the host galaxy, the black hole must continue to grow its mass significantly, by up to a factor of a few, after reaching this point. The mass increment ∆M BH depends sensitively on both galaxy size and SMBH spin. The galaxy size dependence leads to ∆M BH ∝ σ 5 and a steepening of the M − σ relation beyond the analytically calculated M ∝ σ 4 , in agreement with observation. Slowly-spinning black holes are much less efficient in producing feedback, so at any given σ the slowest-spinning black holes should be the most massive. Current observational constraints are consistent with this picture, but insufficient to test it properly; however, this should change with upcoming surveys.

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Section: Discussion and Summarymentioning

confidence: 99%

Slow and massive: low-spin SMBHs can grow more

Zubovas

King

2019

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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“…Baronchelli et al 2018). Moreover, flux-limited samples are known to be biased in preferentially detecting high-spinning black holes (Brenneman et al 2011;Vasudevan et al 2016), simply because they are brighter than their non-rotating analogous (see Reynolds 2019). Then, we tested the model using maximally-spinning black holes, with radiative efficiency 0.3 and ISCO down to r 0 = 1.24r g (Thorne 1974).…”

Section: The Impact Of the Accretion Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…10 shows how the data and this high-spin model compare in the L X −L UV plane. We want to stress that using only a maximum spin for all sources is an extreme measure, but since the (unknown) observed spin distribution is likely dominated by high-spin values (Reynolds 2019), model contours of a more realistic diverse population of high-spinning sources would be closer to the high-efficiency ones in Fig. 9 rather than to the spin-zero case.…”

Section: The Impact Of the Accretion Efficiencymentioning

confidence: 99%

Testing the disk-corona interplay in radiatively-efficient broad-line AGN

Arcodia

Merloni

Nandra

et al. 2019

A&A

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The correlation observed between monochromatic X-ray and UV luminosities in radiatively-efficient active galactic nuclei (AGN) lacks a clear theoretical explanation despite being used for many applications. Such a correlation, with its small intrinsic scatter and its slope that is smaller than unity in log space, represents the compelling evidence that a mechanism regulating the energetic interaction between the accretion disk and the X-ray corona must be in place. This ensures that going from fainter to brighter sources the coronal emission increases less than the disk emission. We discuss here a self-consistently coupled disk-corona model that can identify this regulating mechanism in terms of modified viscosity prescriptions in the accretion disk. The model predicts a lower fraction of accretion power dissipated in the corona for higher accretion states. We then present a quantitative observational test of the model using a reference sample of broad-line AGN and modeling the disk-corona emission for each source in the L X − L UV plane. We used the slope, normalization, and scatter of the observed relation to constrain the parameters of the theoretical model. For non-spinning black holes and static coronae, we find that the accretion prescriptions that match the observed slope of the L X − L UV relation produce X-rays that are too weak with respect to the normalization of the observed relation. Instead, considering moderatelyoutflowing Comptonizing coronae and/or a more realistic high-spinning black hole population significantly relax the tension between the strength of the observed and modeled X-ray emission, while also predicting very low intrinsic scatter in the L X − L UV relation. In particular, this latter scenario traces a known selection effect of flux-limited samples that preferentially select high-spinning, hence brighter, sources.

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“…Although the physical reasons for these conclusions are different, they also emerge in the simulations of Bustamante and Springel. [ 44 ] Current spin estimates in active galactic nuclei include large uncertainties (e.g., [45]) but will provide the needed constraints in the foreseeable future. We conclude that the best hope to rule out both of the theoretical ideas discussed here, or at least produce tension with them, is for the spin value of the M87 black hole to be measured in the 0.5 < a < 0.9 range.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spin of the M87 Black Hole

Garofalo

2020

Annalen der Physik

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Spin measurement of the 6.5 billion solar mass black hole in M87 from the Event Horizon Telescope image is the latest in a series that span a wide range in values, but that tend to share the feature of corotation between the accretion flow and black hole. The spin paradigm for black holes predicts very high black hole spin which in that framework is produced in its last significant merger. High black hole spin appears to be ruled out in the gap paradigm, however, which predicts early formation with a mass already in excess of 4 billion solar masses. In this picture, the black hole experiences slow evolution as it departs from its original radio quasar phase and over billions of years not only fails to double its mass but also falls short of regaining its original high spin, such that it is now compatible with a corotating accreting black hole whose dimensionless spin fits best in the range 0.2 < a < 0.5.

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Observing black holes spin

Cited by 175 publications

References 104 publications

Slow and massive: low-spin SMBHs can grow more

Slow and massive: low-spin SMBHs can grow more

Testing the disk-corona interplay in radiatively-efficient broad-line AGN

Spin of the M87 Black Hole

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