Observational Evidence for a Correlation Between Jet Power and Black Hole Spin
نویسندگان
چکیده
We show that the 5 GHz radio flux of transient ballistic jets in black hole binaries correlates well with the dimensionless black hole spin parameter a∗ estimated via the continuumfitting method. The data suggest that jet power scales either as the square of a∗ or the square of the angular velocity of the horizonΩH . This is the first direct evidence that jets are 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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تاریخ انتشار 2011