Gravitational Model of High Energy Particles in a Collimated Jet

Abstract

Observations suggest that relativistic particles play a fundamental role in the dynamics of jets emerging from active galactic nuclei as well as in their interaction with the intracluster medium. However, no general consensus exists concerning the acceleration mechanism of those high energy particles. A gravitational acceleration mechanism is here proposed, in which particles leaving precise regions within the ergosphere of a rotating supermassive black hole produce a highly collimated flow. These particles follow unbound geodesics which are asymptotically parallel to the spin axis of the black hole and are characterized by the energy $E$, the Carter constant $\mathcal{Q}$ and zero angular momentum of the component $L_z$. If environmental effects are neglected, the present model predicts at distances of about 140 kpc from the ergosphere the presence of electrons with energies around 9.4 GeV. The present mechanism can also accelerate protons up to the highest energies observed in cosmic rays by the present experiments.

27 pages and 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Astrophysical Journal. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1011.6545

References in corpus (3)

• Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays from Black Hole Jets of Radio Galaxies
• Emergent Flux from Particle Collisions Near a Kerr Black Hole
• A two-component jet model based on the Blandford-Znajek and Blandford-Payne processes

Cited by in corpus (8)

• Cylindrical Systems in General Relativity
• Unbound geodesics from the ergosphere and potential observability of debris from ultrahigh energy particle collisions
• Unbound geodesics from the ergosphere and the M87 jet profile
• Observable acceleration of jets by a Kerr black hole
• Particles under radiation thrust in Schwarzschild space-time from a flux perpendicular to the equatorial plane
• Kerr Geodesics Following the Axis of Symmetry
• Geodesics dynamics in the Linet-Tian spacetime with Lambda>0
• Repulsive effect for the unbound high energy particles along the rotation axis in the Kerr-Taub-NUT spacetime