We present the results of a new series of global 3D relativistic magneto-hydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of thin accretion disks around spinning black holes. The disks have aspect ratios of H/R∼0.05 and spin parameters a/M=0,0.5,0.9, and 0.99. Using the ray-tracing code Pandurata, we generate broad-band thermal spectra and polarization signatures from the MHD simulations. We find that the simulated spectra can be well fit with a simple, universal emissivity profile that better reproduces the behavior of the emission from the inner disk, compared to traditional analyses carried out using a Novikov-Thorne thin disk model. Lastly, we show how spectropolarization observations can be used to convincingly break the spin-inclination degeneracy well-known to the continuum fitting method of measuring black hole spin.
@article{arxiv.1512.00729,
title = {Disk Emission from Magneto-hydrodynamic Simulations of Spinning Black Holes},
author = {Jeremy D. Schnittman and Julian H. Krolik and Scott C. Noble},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1512.00729},
year = {2016}
}