Towards the use of the most massive black hole candidates in AGN to test the Kerr paradigm

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of using the most massive active galactic nuclei with high radiative efficiency as natural laboratories to test the Kerr black hole paradigm, which could reveal new physics.

Contribution

It proposes a method to test the Kerr hypothesis by measuring radiative efficiency in AGN, linking electromagnetic observations to fundamental space-time geometry.

Findings

High radiative efficiency suggests rapidly rotating black holes.

Moderate luminosity indicates geometrically thin accretion disks.

Measuring efficiency could test the Kerr paradigm with precision comparable to gravitational wave detectors.

Abstract

The super-massive objects in galactic nuclei are thought to be the Kerr black holes predicted by General Relativity, although a definite proof of their actual nature is still lacking. The most massive objects in AGN ($M \sim 10^9 M_\odot$) seem to have a high radiative efficiency ($\eta \sim 0.4$) and a moderate mass accretion rate ($L_{\rm bol}/L_{\rm Edd} \sim 0.3$). The high radiative efficiency could suggest they are very rapidly-rotating black holes. The moderate luminosity could indicate that their accretion disk is geometrically thin. If so, these objects could be excellent candidates to test the Kerr black hole hypothesis. An accurate measurement of the radiative efficiency of an individual AGN may probe the geometry of the space-time around the black hole candidate with a precision comparable to the one achievable with future space-based gravitational-wave detectors like LISA. A robust evidence of the existence of a black hole candidate with $\eta > 0.32$ and accreting from a thin disk may be interpreted as an indication of new physics. For the time being, there are several issues to address before using AGN to test the Kerr paradigm, but the approach seems to be promising and capable of providing interesting results before the advent of gravitational wave astronomy.