paper

Off-equatorial orbits in strong gravitational fields near compact objects -- II: halo motion around magnetic compact stars and magnetized black holes

arXiv:1005.3270 · doi:10.1088/0264-9381/27/13/135006

Abstract

Off-equatorial circular orbits with constant latitudes (halo orbits) of electrically charged particles exist near compact objects. In the previous paper, we discussed this kind of motion and demonstrated the existence of minima of the two-dimensional effective potential which correspond to the stable halo orbits. Here, we relax previous assumptions of the pseudo-Newtonian approach for the gravitational field of the central body and study properties of the halo orbits in detail. Within the general relativistic approach, we carry out our calculations in two cases. Firstly, we examine the case of a rotating magnetic compact star. Assuming that the magnetic field axis and the rotation axis are aligned with each other, we study the orientation of motion along the stable halo orbits. In the poloidal plane, we also discuss shapes of the related effective potential halo lobes where the general off-equatorial motion can be bound. Then we focus on the halo orbits near a Kerr black hole immersed in an asymptotically uniform magnetic field of external origin. We demonstrate that, in both the cases considered, the lobes exhibit two different regimes, namely, one where completely disjoint lobes occur symmetrically above and below the equatorial plane, and another where the lobes are joined across the plane. A possible application of the model concerns the structure of putative circumpulsar discs consisting of dust particles. We suggest that the particles can acquire a small (but non-zero) net electric charge, and this drives them to form the halo lobes.

24 pages, 7 figures

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