Shock acceleration in vortex driven magnetic fields of black holes

Abstract

The aim of this work is to investigate particle acceleration by shock waves in the magnetospheres of supermassive black holes, where the magnetic field is vortex-driven. For this purpose, we investigated the first-order Fermi acceleration process at relativistic shocks in the magnetospheres of supermassive black holes. In our analysis, we considered synchrotron radiation and inverse Compton scattering as the principal energy-loss mechanisms limiting the maximum attainable particle energy. We investigated the acceleration of both protons and electrons and demonstrated that, for a typical supermassive black hole with a mass of $10^8$ solar masses, protons can be accelerated to energies of several hundred PeV, whereas electrons can attain energies of up to approximately 120 GeV.

arXiv comment7 pages, 2 figures