Interferometric inference of black hole spin from photon ring size and brightness

Abstract

The $n=1$ photon ring is a full image of the astrophysical source around a black hole, produced by photons that execute $n\approx1$ half-orbit around the event horizon on their way to an observer. The Black Hole Explorer (BHEX) is a proposed extension of the Event Horizon Telescope to space that will target the $n=1$ photon rings of the supermassive black holes M87${}^\ast$ and Sgr\,A${}^\ast$. In this paper, we introduce a new interferometric observable that will be directly measurable on BHEX baselines and which admits a clear image-domain interpretation in terms of the photon ring brightness profile. Across a wide range of semi-analytic equatorial emission models, we find that the azimuthal intensity profile of the ring can change depending on the astrophysics of the source, but its width $w_b$ is weakly sensitive to these details -- much like the ring shape, which has previously been identified as a probe of the spacetime geometry. Our survey suggests that interferometric measurements of the photon ring diameter and $w_b$ can place constraints (to $\lesssim\!20\%$) on the spin and inclination of a black hole with a known mass-to-distance ratio, such as Sgr\,A${}^\ast$. State-of-the-art numerical simulations support this finding, paving the way to a precise photon-ring-based spin measurement for Sgr\,A${}^\ast$ with BHEX.