Black Hole Spin Energy Contribution to Black Hole Mass and the Spin Energy Reservoir

Abstract: The mass of a black hole is the sum of the irreducible mass and the mass associated with the rotational or spin energy of the black hole. The contribution of spin energy (divided by $c^2$) to the total black hole mass is studied here for four samples of sources including 576 LINERs, 100 classical double radio sources, 80 relatively local AGN, and 102 measurements of four stellar mass X-ray binary systems. The spin mass-energy of a black hole may be extracted causing the mass of the black hole to decrease. The ratio of spin mass-energy to black hole mass ranges from about ten to thirty percent for the sources studied here, where the maximum possible value of this quantity is close to thirty percent. Typical fractions of the black hole mass available for extraction for the samples studied are about $0.2 \pm 0.1$. The spin energy of black holes represents a major reservoir that when tapped may impact the immediate and extended black hole environment, decrease the black hole mass, and perhaps modify relationships between black hole mass and galaxy properties. These results are consistent with expectations based on other observations and numerical simulations.