Journal
MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY
Volume 479, Issue 1, Pages L65-L69Publisher
OXFORD UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1093/mnrasl/sly097
Keywords
accretion, accretion discs; black hole physics; galaxies: individual: M87; galaxies: jets
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Funding
- Russian Science Foundation [16-12-10051]
- Russian Science Foundation [16-12-10051] Funding Source: Russian Science Foundation
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New long-term Very Long Baseline Array observations of the well-known jet in the M87 radio galaxy at 43 GHz show that the jet experiences a sideways shift with an approximately 8-10 yr quasi-periodicity. Such jet wobbling can be indicative of a relativistic Lense-Thirring precession resulting from a tilted accretion disc. The wobbling period together with up-to-date kinematic data on jet rotation opens up the possibility for estimating angular momentum of the central supermassive black hole. In the case of a test-particle precession, the specific angular momentum is J/Mc = (2.7 +/- 1.5) x 10(14) cm, implying moderate dimensionless spin parameters a = 0.5 +/- 0.3 and 0.31 +/- 0.17 for controversial gas-dynamic and stellar-dynamic black hole masses. However, in the case of a solid-body-like precession, the spin parameter is much smaller for both masses, 0.15 +/- 0.05. Rejecting this value on the basis of other independent spin estimations requires the existence of a magnetically arrested disc in M87.
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