Testing theories of accretion and gravity with super-extremal Kerr discs

Abstract

ABSTRACT Fitting the thermal continuum emission of accreting black holes observed across X-ray bands represents one of the principle means of constraining the properties (mass and spin) of astrophysical black holes. Recent ‘continuum fitting’ studies of Galactic X-ray binaries in the soft state have found best-fitting dimensionless spin values which run into the prior bounds placed on traditional models (a⋆ = 0.9999). It is of critical importance that these results are robust, and not a result solely of the presence of these prior bounds and deficiencies in conventional models of accretion. Motivated by these results we derive and present superkerr, an xspec model comprising of a thin accretion disc solution valid in the Kerr geometry for arbitrary spin parameter a⋆, extending previous models valid only for black holes (|a⋆| < 1). This extension into ‘super-extremal’ space–times with |a⋆| > 1 includes solutions which describe discs evolving around naked singularities, not black holes. While being valid solutions of Einstein’s field equations these naked singularities are not expected to be present in nature. We discuss how the ‘measurement’ of a Kerr spin parameter 1 < a⋆ < 5/3 would present compelling evidence for the requirement of a rethink in either standard accretion theory, or our theories of gravity.