The Spin of M87*

Now that the mass of the central black hole (BH) in the galaxy M87 has been measured with great precision using different methods, the remaining parameter of the Kerr metric that needs to be estimated is the spin a*. We have modeled measurements of the average power of the relativistic jet and an upper limit to the mass accretion rate onto the BH with general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic models of jet formation. This allows us to derive constraints on a* and the BH magnetic flux ϕ. We find a lower limit on M87*'s spin and magnetic flux of $| {a}_{* }| \geqslant 0.4$ and ϕ ≳ 6 in the prograde case, and $| {a}_{* }| \geqslant 0.5$ and ϕ ≳ 10 in the retrograde case; otherwise, the BH is not able to provide enough energy to power the observed jet. These results indicate that M87* has a moderate spin at minimum and disfavor a variety of models typified by low values of ϕ known as "standard and normal disk evolution", indicating that M87* prefers the magnetically arrested disk state. We discuss how different estimates of the jet power and accretion rate can impact a* and ϕ.