Black Hole Spin and Accretion Disk Magnetic Field Strength Estimates for More Than 750 Active Galactic Nuclei and Multiple Galactic Black Holes

Abstract

Abstract Black hole systems, composed of a black hole, accretion disk, and collimated outflow, are studied here. Three active galactic nucleus (AGN) samples including 753 AGNs and 102 measurements of four stellar-mass galactic black holes (GBHs) are studied. Applying the theoretical considerations described by Daly, general expressions for the black hole spin function and accretion disk magnetic field strength are presented and applied to obtain the black hole spin function, spin, and accretion disk magnetic field strength in dimensionless and physical units for each source. Relatively high spin values are obtained; spin functions indicate typical spin values of about 0.6–1 for the sources. The distributions of accretion disk magnetic field strengths for the three AGN samples are quite broad and have mean values of about 104 G, while those for individual GBHs have mean values of about 108 G. Good agreement is found between spin values obtained here and published values obtained with well-established methods; comparisons for one GBH and six AGNs indicate that similar spin values are obtained with independent methods. Black hole spin and disk magnetic field strength demographics are obtained and indicate that black hole spin functions and spins are similar for all of the source types studied, including GBHs and different categories of AGNs. The method applied here does not depend on any specific accretion disk emission model and does not depend on a specific model that relates jet beam power to compact radio luminosity; hence, the results obtained here can be used to constrain and study these models.