A Calorimetric Test for Kerr Black Holes in Gamma-Ray Bursts

Cosmological gamma-ray bursts are potentially associated with systems harboring a rotating black hole. Calorimetry on yet "unseen" emissions in gravitational waves from a surrounding torus may provide a measure for its rotational energy. We introduce a compactness parameter α = 2π f dE for the fluence E and frequency f in gravitational waves. For black hole-torus systems, α ≃ 2π Ef ≃ 0.005-0.05 may exceed the upper bound α* = 0.005 for rapidly rotating neutron stars. A duration in gravitational radiation consistent with the redshift-corrected durations of the BATSE catalog defines an association with long gamma-ray bursts. This promises to be a new test for Kerr black holes as objects in nature.