We have investigated the antiferromagnetic edge states in carbon nanotubes with hydrogen line defects by using the density functional theory calculations. As the hydrogen line defects increase, the exchange energy gain stabilizing the antiferromagnetic edge states increases in each graphenic ribbon produced by the line defects, indicating that the antiferromagnetic edge states can be realized at high temperatures regardless of the nanotube size. The exchange energy gain in each ribbon is determined by the ribbon width of the flat ribbon and apparently by the curvature of the curved ribbon. The exchange interaction between the ribbons is seen to be negligibly small even in the presence of a nonmagnetic inter-ribbon interaction that is sensitive to the ribbon width. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.