Electron-Positron Cascade in Magnetospheres of Spinning Black Holes

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, micro-quasars, radio active galaxies, and other systems that host Kerr BHs. The structure of the magnetosphere determines how the BH energy is extracted, e.g., via 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, BH cannot supply plasma at all. The plasma must be generated \em{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.

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• First-Principles Plasma Simulations of Black-Hole Jet Launching
• Physics of Pair Producing Gaps in Black Hole Magnetospheres II -- General Relativity
• Comprehensive analysis of magnetospheric gaps around Kerr black holes using 1D GRPIC simulations
• Pair Drizzle around Sub-Eddington Supermassive Black Holes
• Bremsstrahlung in GRMHD models of accreting black holes
• Gap-type Particle Acceleration in the Magnetospheres of Rotating Supermassive Black Holes
• Cosmic rays from the nearby starburst galaxy NGC 253: the effect of a low luminosity active galactic nucleus
• Physics of Pair Producing Gaps in Black Hole Magnetospheres: Two Dimensional General Relativistic Particle-in-cell Simulations
• Electron-beam interaction with emission-line clouds in blazars
• Two-dimensional Particle-in-Cell simulations of axisymmetric black hole magnetospheres: angular dependence of the Blandford-Znajek flux
• Pair-Regulated Klein-Nishina Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection with Applications to Blazars and Accreting Black Holes