Journal
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL
Volume 805, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0004-637X/805/2/179
Keywords
black hole physics; galaxies: individual (M87); gravitation; radio continuum: galaxies; infrared: galaxies; ultraviolet: galaxies
Categories
Funding
- US National Science Foundation
- Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation [GBMF3561]
- NASA [NAS 5-26555, NNX14AB47G]
- Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada
- NSF [AST1312651]
- University of Texas
- Max-Planck-Institut fur Extraterrestrsiche Physik (MPE), Garching-by-Munich, Germany
- Direct For Mathematical & Physical Scien
- Division Of Astronomical Sciences [1211539, 1312651, 1310896] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
- NASA [686658, NNX14AB47G] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
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The 6 x 10(9) M-circle dot 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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