GRS 1915+105 as a galactic analog of a Fanaroff-Riley II quasar

Abstract

We study the long-term time-averaged kinetic luminosity, Q, of the major flares of the Galactic microquasar GRS 1915+105 and the relationship to the intrinsic X-ray (bolometric) luminosity, Lbol, and scale it to that of a complete sample of SDSS/FIRST Fanaroff-Riley (FR) II quasars. If the scale invariance hypothesis for black holes (BHs) holds then we show that the expected distribution in the Q-Lbol scatter plane of GRS 1915+105 is consistent with FR II quasars for distances D = 10.7-11 kpc. We compare the specific values of kinetic luminosity and Lbol during flares of GRS 1915+105 to that predicted by several three-dimensional MHD simulations of BH accretion flows with relativistic ejections. If FR II quasars are a scaled up version of GRS 1915+105, the data are consistent with numerical models when they contain an ergospheric disk jet and the BH spin is a/M = 0.99 or a/M = 0.998 (we estimate a/M > 0.984). In the framework of scale invariance of BHs, our results may imply that FR II quasars also hold rapidly rotating BHs. © 2013. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.