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Title: Polarization whorls from M87* at the event horizon telescope

Abstract

The event horizon telescope (EHT) is anticipated to soon produce polarimetric images of the supermassive black hole at the centre of the neighbouring galaxy M87. There are indications that this black hole is rapidly spinning. General relativity predicts that such a high-spin black hole has an emergent conformal symmetry near its event horizon. In this paper, we use this symmetry to analytically predict the polarized near-horizon emissions to be seen at the EHT and find a distinctive pattern of whorls aligned with the spin.

Authors:
ORCiD logo [1];  [2];  [1];  [1];  [1]
  1. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States)
  2. Harvard Univ., Cambridge, MA (United States); Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (United States). School of Natural Sciences
Publication Date:
Research Org.:
Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, NJ (United States)
Sponsoring Org.:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF); John Templeton Foundation
OSTI Identifier:
1631982
Grant/Contract Number:  
SC0009988; DGE1144152
Resource Type:
Accepted Manuscript
Journal Name:
Proceedings of the Royal Society. A. Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 476; Journal Issue: 2237; Journal ID: ISSN 1364-5021
Publisher:
The Royal Society Publishing
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; general relativity; polarimetry; conformal symmetry; black holes

Citation Formats

Lupsasca, Alexandru, Kapec, Daniel, Shi, Yichen, Gates, Delilah E. A., and Strominger, Andrew. Polarization whorls from M87* at the event horizon telescope. United States: N. p., 2020. Web. doi:10.1098/rspa.2019.0618.
Lupsasca, Alexandru, Kapec, Daniel, Shi, Yichen, Gates, Delilah E. A., & Strominger, Andrew. Polarization whorls from M87* at the event horizon telescope. United States. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2019.0618
Lupsasca, Alexandru, Kapec, Daniel, Shi, Yichen, Gates, Delilah E. A., and Strominger, Andrew. Wed . "Polarization whorls from M87* at the event horizon telescope". United States. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspa.2019.0618. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1631982.
@article{osti_1631982,
title = {Polarization whorls from M87* at the event horizon telescope},
author = {Lupsasca, Alexandru and Kapec, Daniel and Shi, Yichen and Gates, Delilah E. A. and Strominger, Andrew},
abstractNote = {The event horizon telescope (EHT) is anticipated to soon produce polarimetric images of the supermassive black hole at the centre of the neighbouring galaxy M87. There are indications that this black hole is rapidly spinning. General relativity predicts that such a high-spin black hole has an emergent conformal symmetry near its event horizon. In this paper, we use this symmetry to analytically predict the polarized near-horizon emissions to be seen at the EHT and find a distinctive pattern of whorls aligned with the spin.},
doi = {10.1098/rspa.2019.0618},
journal = {Proceedings of the Royal Society. A. Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences},
number = 2237,
volume = 476,
place = {United States},
year = {Wed May 27 00:00:00 EDT 2020},
month = {Wed May 27 00:00:00 EDT 2020}
}

Journal Article:
Free Publicly Available Full Text
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Cited by: 5 works
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