Publication: Observational evidence for a correlation between jet power and black hole spin
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Date
2012
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Oxford University Press (OUP)
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Narayan, Ramesh, and Jeffrey E. McClintock. 2012. “Observational Evidence for a Correlation Between Jet Power and Black Hole Spin.” Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters 419 (1) (January 1): L69–L73.
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Abstract
We show that the 5-GHz radio flux of transient ballistic jets in black hole binaries correlates with the dimensionless black hole spin parameter a* estimated via the continuum-fitting method. The data suggest that jet power scales either as the square of a* or the square of the angular velocity of the horizon. This is the first direct evidence that jets may be powered by black hole spin energy. The observed correlation validates the continuum-fitting method of measuring spin. In addition, for those black holes that have well-sampled radio observations of ballistic jets, the correlation may be used to obtain rough estimates of their spins.
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Keywords
accretion, accretion discs – black hole physics – binaries: close – ISM: jets and outflows – X-rays: binaries
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