Radiative Particle-in-Cell Simulations of Turbulent Comptonization in Magnetized Black-Hole Coronae
arXiv:2301.11327 · doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.132.085202
Abstract
We report results from the first radiative particle-in-cell simulations of strong Alfvenic turbulence in plasmas of moderate optical depth. The simulations are performed in a local 3D periodic box and self-consistently follow the evolution of radiation as it interacts with a turbulent electron-positron plasma via Compton scattering. We focus on the conditions expected in magnetized coronae of accreting black holes and obtain an emission spectrum consistent with the observed hard state of Cyg X-1. Most of the turbulence power is transferred directly to the photons via bulk Comptonization, shaping the peak of the emission around 100 keV. The rest is released into nonthermal particles, which generate the MeV spectral tail. The method presented here shows promising potential for ab initio modeling of various astrophysical sources and opens a window into a new regime of kinetic plasma turbulence.
Accepted for publication in Physical Review Letters
References in corpus (22)
- X-ray Properties of Black-Hole Binaries
- Active Galactic Nuclei: what's in a name?
- Numerical Tests of Fast Reconnection in Weakly Stochastic Magnetic Fields
- Black hole flares: ejection of accreted magnetic flux through 3D plasmoid-mediated reconnection
- 3D Turbulent Reconnection: Theory, Tests and Astrophysical Implications
- Kinetic turbulence in relativistic plasma: from thermal bath to non-thermal continuum
- Properties of AGN coronae in the NuSTAR era II: hybrid plasma
- Small scale structures in three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
- Formation of Magnetically Truncated Accretion Disks in 3D Radiation-Transport Two-Temperature GRMHD Simulations
- Properties of the First-order Fermi acceleration in fast magnetic reconnection driven by turbulence in collisional MHD flows
- Pitch Angle Anisotropy Controls Particle Acceleration and Cooling in Radiative Relativistic Plasma Turbulence
- Comptonization by Reconnection Plasmoids in Black Hole Coronae I: Magnetically Dominated Pair Plasma
- On the role of fast magnetic reconnection in accreting black hole sources
- A magnetic reconnection model for explaining the multi-wavelength emission of the microquasars Cyg X-1 and Cyg X-3
- Non-resonant particle acceleration in strong turbulence: comparison to kinetic and MHD simulations
- Fundamental X-ray Corona Parameters of Swift/BAT AGN
- Comptonization by Reconnection Plasmoids in Black Hole Coronae II: Electron-Ion Plasma
- VHE Emission from Magnetic Reconnection in the RIAF of SgrA*
- Turbulence and particle acceleration in a relativistic plasma
- A fully-kinetic model for orphan gamma-ray flares in blazars
- Spectra of magnetic turbulence in a relativistic plasma
- Pair-Regulated Klein-Nishina Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection with Applications to Blazars and Accreting Black Holes
Cited by in corpus (17)
- Relativistic Magnetic Reconnection in Astrophysical Plasmas: A Powerful Mechanism of Nonthermal Emission
- Revealing the Production Mechanism of High-Energy Neutrinos from NGC 1068
- The Interplay between accelerated Protons, X-rays and Neutrinos in the Corona of NGC 1068: Constraints from Kinetic Plasma Simulations
- Radiative plasma simulations of black hole accretion flow coronae in the hard and soft states
- Bulk Motions in the Black Hole Jet Sheath as a Candidate for the Comptonizing Corona
- Whispering in the dark: Faint X-ray emission from black holes with OB star companions
- Thermal solutions of strongly magnetized disks and the hysteresis in X-ray binaries
- Millimeter emission from supermassive black hole coronae
- Leaking Outside the Box: Kinetic Turbulence with Cosmic-Ray Escape
- High-energy Emission from Turbulent Electron-ion Coronae of Accreting Black Holes
- Energy Diffusion and Advection Coefficients in Kinetic Simulations of Relativistic Plasma Turbulence
- A kinetic model of jet-corona coupling in accreting black holes
- Misalignment of the Lense-Thirring precession by an accretion torque
- A New Particle Pusher with Hadronic Interactions for Modeling Multimessenger Emission from Compact Objects
- On The Nonthermal Power Laws In Magnetized Turbulent Plasmas
- Accretion Geometry of Black Hole X-ray Binaries: Insights from X-ray Observations
- Anisotropy and energy distribution of leptons and photons in radiative relativistic Alfvénic turbulence