2008/02/29 by Jian‐Min Wang, Jian-Min Wang, Yanrong Li +4
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/587740
4 pages, 4 figures. to appear in ApJL
arxiv created 2008/02/29 · openalex publication_date 2008/03/06 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/31
The rapid TeV γ-ray variability detected in the well-known nearby radio galaxy M87 implies an extremely compact emission region (5-10 Schwarzschild radii) near the horizon of the supermassive black hole in the galactic center. TeV photons are affected by dilution due to interaction with the radiation field of the advection-dominated accretion flow (ADAF) around the black hole, and can thus be used to probe the innermost regions around the black hole. We calculate the optical depth of the ADAF radiation field to the TeV photons and find it strongly depends on the spin of the black hole. We find that transparent radii of 10 TeV photons are of 5 R S and 13 R S for the maximally rotating and nonrotating black holes, respectively. With the observations, the calculated transparent radii strongly suggest the black hole is spinning fast in the galaxy. TeV photons could be used as a powerful diagnostic for estimating black hole spins in galaxies in the future.