Electron-positron cascade in magnetospheres of spinning black holes
Name
PhysRevD.98.063016.pdf
Size
6.64 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
2bd2bd0a756ce321c0dfe63173f976ba
Author(s)
Ford, Alexander L.
Keenan, Brett D.
Medvedev, Mikhail V.
Date Issued
September 2018
Journal
Physical Review D
Publisher
American Physical Society
Citation
Ford, Alexander L. et al. "Electron-positron cascade in magnetospheres of spinning black holes." Physical Review D 98, 6 (September 2018): 063016 © 2018 American Physical Society
Version
Final published version
Abstract
We quantitatively study the stationary, axisymmetric, force-free magnetospheres of spinning (Kerr) black holes (BHs) and the conditions needed for relativistic jets to be powered by the Blandford-Znajek mechanism. These jets could be from active galactic nuclei, blazars, quasars, microquasars, radioactive galaxies, and other systems that host Kerr BHs. The structure of the magnetosphere determines how the BH energy is extracted, e.g., via the Blandford-Znajek mechanism, which converts the BH rotational energy into Poynting flux. The key assumption is the force-free condition, which requires the presence of plasma with the density being above the Goldreich-Julian density. Unlike neutron stars, which in principle can supply electrons from the surface, BHs cannot supply plasma at all. The plasma must be generated in situ via an electron-positron cascade, presumably in the gap region. Here we study varying conditions that provide a sufficient amount of plasma for the Blandford-Znajek mechanism to work effectively.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Laboratory for Nuclear Science
Terms of Use
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevD.98.063016
