Determination of the Magnetic Field Strength and Geometry in the Accretion Disks of AGNs by Optical Spectropolarimetry

Abstract

Based on the spectropolarimetric data of 33 Seyfert type 1 galaxies observed with the BTA-6m telescope of the Special Astrophysical Observatory, we estimated the magnetic field values at the event horizon of the supermassive black hole BH and the exponents of the power-law dependence s of the magnetic field on the radius. We used the model of optically thick geometrically thin Shakura–Sunyaev accretion disk. The average value of logBH[G] was found to be ∼4, which is in good agreement with the results obtained by other methods. The average value of s is s≈1.7, and its distribution maximum span is in the range od 1.85<s<2.0. This is a rather interesting result, since s=5/4 is usually adopted in calculations for Shakura–Sunyaev accretion disks. In addition, for two objects PG 1545+210 and 2MASX J06021107+2828382, the measured degree of polarization is greater than the maximum possible value at the angle between the line of sight and the axis of the accretion disk i=45°. It was concluded that for these objects the angle should be closer to i=60°.