GRS 1915+105 as a Galactic Analog of a Fanaroff-Riley II Quasar

TL;DR

This study compares the kinetic luminosity of GRS 1915+105 with that of FR II quasars, suggesting scale invariance and rapid black hole spin as key factors in jet production across different black hole systems.

Contribution

It demonstrates that GRS 1915+105 can serve as a galactic analog for FR II quasars, supporting the scale invariance hypothesis and constraining black hole spin parameters.

Findings

GRS 1915+105's kinetic luminosity aligns with FR II quasars at 10.7-11 kpc.

Numerical models fit data when black hole spin is high (a/M > 0.984).

Results imply FR II quasars also host rapidly rotating black holes.

Abstract

We study the long term time averaged kinetic luminosity, $\bar{Q}$, of the major flares of the Galactic microquasar GRS 1915+105 and the relationship to the intrinsic X-ray (bolometric) luminosity, $L_{\mathrm{bol}}$, and scale it to that of a complete sample of SDSS/FIRST FR II quasars. If the scale invariance hypothesis for black holes (BHs) holds then we show that the expected distribution in the $\bar{Q}$ - $L_{\mathrm{bol}}$ scatter plane of GRS 1915+105 is consistent with FR II quasars for distances D = 10.7 - 11 kpc. We compare the specific values of kinetic luminosity and $L_{\mathrm{bol}}$ during flares of GRS 1915+105 to that predicted by several 3-D MHD simulations of BH accretion flows with relativistic ejections. If FR II quasars are a scaled up version of GRS 1915+105, the data are consistent with numerical models when they contain an ergospheric disk jet and the BH spin is $a/M= 0.99$ or $a/M=0.998$ (we estimate $a/M>0.984$). In the framework of scale invariance of BHs, our results may imply that FR II quasars also hold rapidly rotating BHs.