Black Hole Polarimetry: Universal Polarization of Synchrotron Radiation at the Horizon

Abstract

Polarized images of a black hole encode the direction of electromagnetic energy flow near its event horizon. Measuring polarization from near-horizon emission can help determine whether this energy flow is powered by the accreting plasma or the black hole spin. Here we consider the linear polarization of synchrotron radiation emitted from the base of horizon-threading field lines in a time-stationary, axisymmetric, and degenerate Kerr magnetosphere with nonzero poloidal current. We show that the observed polarization pattern displays universal behavior: it is completely determined by the black hole spin and observer inclination and is independent of the magnetic field geometry. We derive a simple analytic formula for this spin-dependent horizon polarization pattern. We find that this predicted pattern is also approached in time-averaged images from General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic simulations. Future observations with Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry at microarcsecond resolution could detect the trend of polarization toward the unique horizon value in M87*. Such observations may enable new measurements of black hole spin and provide evidence that magnetic field lines thread the horizon, a necessary condition for spin-energy extraction via the Blandford–Znajek process.