GAMMA RADIATION FROM RAPIDLY ROTATING BLACK HOLES

Image: This artist's impression illustrates how high-speed jets from supermassive black holes would look. These outflows of plasma are the result of the extraction of energy from a supermassive black hole’s rotation as it consumes the disc of swirling material that surrounds it. Credit: NASA, ESA, M. Chiaberge (STScI)

The radiation from an active galactic nuclei (AGN) is believed to be a result of accretion of mass by a supermassive black hole at the centre of its host galaxy.

In a recent paper (Hirotani et al., 2016 ApJ) the authors demonstrate that electrons and positrons created by photon collisions near a rotating black hole are accelerated in the opposite direction by the electric field present near the event horizon. This electric field acts as a particle accelerator (or gap) and dissipates a part of the hole’s rotational energy. The resultant gamma-ray luminosity increases with decreasing plasma accretion from the surroundings.

The authors show that in the case of extremely rotating supermassive black-holes, the gap can reproduce the very high energy (VHE) gamma ray flux observed is some active galactic nuclei.

▪ Hirotani & Pu, 2016 ApJ - Energetic gamma radiation from rapidly rotating black holes (arXiv)

▪ Supermassive black holes - HST

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Astrophysics collection (March 11, 2016)

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