paper

Making Clean Energy with a Kerr Black Hole: a Tokamak Model for Gamma-Ray Bursts

arXiv:astro-ph/0005494 · doi:10.1086/317215

Abstract

In this paper we present a model for making clean energy with a Kerr black hole. Consider a Kerr black hole with a dense plasma torus spinning around it. A toroidal electric current flows on the surface of the torus, which generates a poloidal magnetic field outside the torus. On the surface of the tours the magnetic field is parallel to the surface. The closed magnetic field lines winding around the torus compress and confine the plasma in the torus, as in the case of tokamaks. Though it is unclear if such a model is stable, we look into the consequences if the model is stable. If the magnetic field is strong enough, the baryonic contamination from the plasma in the torus is greatly suppressed by the magnetic confinement and a clean magnetosphere of electron-positron pairs is built up around the black hole. Since there are no open magnetic field lines threading the torus and no accretion, the power of the torus is zero. If some magnetic field lines threading the black hole are open and connect with loads, clean energy can be extracted from the Kerr black hole by the Blandford-Znajek mechanism. The model may be relevant to gamma-ray bursts. The energy in the Poynting flux produced by the Blandford-Znajek mechanism is converted into the kinetic energy of the electron-positron pairs in the magnetosphere around the black hole, which generates two oppositely directed jets of electron-positron pairs with super-high bulk Lorentz factors. The jets collide and interact with the interstellar medium, which may produce gamma-ray bursts and the afterglows.

arXiv comment14 pages, 1 figure, accepted by ApJ

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