Black Hole Spin Evolution

Details Black Hole Spin Evolution Black Hole Spin Evolution

2003-10-30

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0310886v1

Astrophys.J.602:312-319,2004

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

22 pp, 4 figures, accepted to ApJ

Scientific paper

10.1086/380996

We consider a subset of the physical processes that determine the spin j = a/M of astrophysical black holes. These include: (1) Initial conditions. Recent models suggest that the collapse of supermassive stars are likely to produce black holes with j ~ 0.7. (2) Major mergers. The outcome of a nearly equal mass black hole-black hole merger is not yet known, but we review the current best guesses and analytic bounds. (3) Minor mergers. We recover the result of Blandford & Hughes that accretion of small companions with isotropically distributed orbital angular momenta results in spindown, with j ~ M^{-7/3}. (4) Accretion. We present new results from fully relativistic magnetohydrodynamic accretion simulations. These show that, at least for one sequence of flow models, spin equilibrium (dj/dt = 0) is reached for j ~ 0.9, far less than the canonical value 0.998 of Thorne that was derived in the absence of MHD effects. This equilibrium value may not apply to all accretion flows, particularly thin disks. Nevertheless, it opens the possibility that black holes that have grown primarily through accretion are not maximally rotating.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Black Hole Spin Evolution does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Black Hole Spin Evolution, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Black Hole Spin Evolution will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-634835