English

Determining parameters of a spherical black hole with a thin accretion disk by observing its shadow

General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology 2023-03-08 v2 High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena

Abstract

We revisit the classic system of a spherically symmetric black hole in general relativity (i.e., a Schwarzschild black hole) surrounded by a geometrically thin accretion disk. Our purpose is to examine whether one can determine three parameters of this system (i.e., black hole mass MM, distance between the black hole and an observer ror_o, inclination angle ii) solely by observing the accretion disk and the black hole shadow. A point in our analysis is to allow ror_o to be finite, which is set to be infinite in most relevant studies. First, it is shown that one can determine the values of (ro/M,i)(r_o/M, i), where M/roM/r_o is the so-called angular gravitational radius, from the size and shape of shadow. Then, it is shown that if one additionally knows the accretion rate M˙\dot{M} (respectively, mass MM) by any independent theoretical or observational approach, one can determine the values of (M,ro,i)(M, r_o, i) [respectively, (M˙,ro,i)(\dot{M}, r_o, i)] without degeneracy, in principle, from the value of flux at any point on the accretion disk.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2210.02164,
  title  = {Determining parameters of a spherical black hole with a thin accretion disk by observing its shadow},
  author = {Kenta Hioki and Umpei Miyamoto},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2210.02164},
  year   = {2023}
}

Comments

28 pages, 11 figures, title modified, sec 6 added, accepted for publication in Physical Review D