Spins of supermassive black holes M87* and SgrA* revealed from the size of dark spots in Event Horizon Telescope Images

TL;DR

This study reconstructs dark spots in EHT images of supermassive black holes SgrA* and M87* using a thin accretion disk model, inferring their spins from the sizes of these spots, which are gravitationally lensed images of the event horizon.

Contribution

It introduces a method to estimate black hole spins by analyzing dark spots as lensed images of the event horizon in EHT images, based on a geometrically thin accretion disk model.

Findings

Estimated spin of SgrA*: 0.65 to 0.9

Estimated spin of M87*: greater than 0.75

Dark spots are gravitationally lensed images of the event horizon

Abstract

We reconstructed dark spots in the images of supermassive black holes SgrA* and M87* provided by the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) collaboration by using the geometrically thin accretion disk model. In this model, the black hole is highlighted by the hot accretion matter up to the very vicinity of the black hole event horizon. The existence of hot accretion matter in the vicinity of black hole event horizons is predicted by the Blandford-Znajek mechanism, which is confirmed by recent general relativistic MHD simulations in supercomputers. A dark spot in the black hole image in the described model is a gravitationally lensed image of an event horizon globe. The lensed images of event horizons are always projected at the celestial sphere inside the awaited positions of the classical black hole shadows, which are invisible in both cases of M87* and SgrA*. We used the sizes of dark spots in the images of SgrA* and M87* for inferring their spins, 0.65<a<0.9 and a>0.75, accordingly.