Magnetic Hair and Reconnection in Black Hole Magnetospheres

Abstract

The no-hair theorem of general relativity states that isolated black holes are characterized by three parameters: mass, spin, and charge. In this Letter we consider Kerr black holes endowed with highly magnetized plasma-filled magnetospheres. Using general relativistic kinetic plasma and resistive magnetohydrodynamics simulations, we show that a dipole magnetic field on the event horizon opens into a split-monopole and reconnects in a plasmoid-unstable current-sheet. The no-hair theorem is satisfied, in the sense that all components of the stress-energy tensor decay exponentially in time. We measure the decay time of magnetic flux on the event horizon for plasmoid-dominated reconnection in collisionless and collisional plasma. The reconnecting magnetosphere should be a powerful source of hard X-ray emission when the magnetic field is strong.

5 pages, 4 figures, accepted PRL

References in corpus (3)

• Formation of Hard Power-laws in the Energetic Particle Spectra Resulting from Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection
• Pulsar Radio Emission Mechanism: Radio Nanoshots as a Low Frequency Afterglow of Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection
• Magnetic Reconnection as a Mechanism for Energy Extraction from Rotating Black Holes

Cited by in corpus (3)

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• Acceleration and cooling of the corona during X-ray flares from the Seyfert galaxy I Zw 1