The Event Horizon of M87

2); (2) University of Waterloo; (3) Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics; (4) University of Texas at Austin; 5; (5) Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik; 6); (6) Universitats-Sternwarte; (7) Department of Physics; (8) Steward Observatory

The Event Horizon of M87

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arxiv 1503.03873 v2 pith:6DOQ3CHO submitted 2015-03-12 astro-ph.HE gr-qc

Avery E. Broderick (1 , 2) , Ramesh Narayan (3) , John Kormendy (4 , 5 , 6) , Eric S. Perlman (7) , Marcia J. Rieke (8)

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Sheperd S. Doeleman (3 9) ((1) Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics (2) University of Waterloo (3) Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (4) University of Texas at Austin (5) Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestrische Physik (6) Universitats-Sternwarte (7) Department of Physics Space Sciences Florida Institute of Technology (8) Steward Observatory (9) MIT Haystack Observatory)

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keywords blackholeaccretionhorizonsurfaceemissioneventdisk

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The 6 billion solar mass supermassive black hole at the center of the giant elliptical galaxy M87 powers a relativistic jet. Observations at millimeter wavelengths with the Event Horizon Telescope have localized the emission from the base of this jet to angular scales comparable to the putative black hole horizon. The jet might be powered directly by an accretion disk or by electromagnetic extraction of the rotational energy of the black hole. However, even the latter mechanism requires a confining thick accretion disk to maintain the required magnetic flux near the black hole. Therefore, regardless of the jet mechanism, the observed jet power in M87 implies a certain minimum mass accretion rate. If the central compact object in M87 were not a black hole but had a surface, this accretion would result in considerable thermal near-infrared and optical emission from the surface. Current flux limits on the nucleus of M87 strongly constrain any such surface emission. This rules out the presence of a surface and thereby provides indirect evidence for an event horizon.

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Cited by 2 Pith papers

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Towards a Non-singular Paradigm of Black Hole Physics
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astro-ph.HE 2024-12 unverdicted novelty 1.0 of 10

A comprehensive review of M87's black hole, accretion flow, and jet observations from event-horizon to kiloparsec scales, with no new measurements.

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