Enhanced gamma radiation toward the rotation axis from the immediate vicinity of extremely rotating black holes

We investigate the acceleration of electrons and positrons by magnetic-field-aligned electric fields in the polar funnel of an accreting black hole (BH). Applying the pulsar outer-gap theory to BH magnetospheres, we find that such a lepton accelerator arises in the immediate vicinity of the event ho...

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Veröffentlicht in:arXiv.org 2017-07
Hauptverfasser: Song, Yoogeun, Hung-Yi, Pu, Hirotani, Kouichi, Matsushita, Satoki, Kong, Albert K H, Hsiang-Kuang Chang
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:We investigate the acceleration of electrons and positrons by magnetic-field-aligned electric fields in the polar funnel of an accreting black hole (BH). Applying the pulsar outer-gap theory to BH magnetospheres, we find that such a lepton accelerator arises in the immediate vicinity of the event horizon due to frame-dragging, and that their gamma-ray luminosity increases with decreasing accretion rate. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the gamma-ray flux is enhanced along the rotation axis by more than an order of magnitude if the BH spin increases from \(a=0.90M\) to \(a=0.9999M\). As a result, if a ten-solar-mass, almost-maximally rotating BH is located within 3 kpc, when its accretion rate is between 0.005% and 0.01% of the Eddington rate, its high-energy flare becomes detectable with the Fermi/Large Area Telescope, provided that the flare lasts longer than 1.2 months and that we view the source nearly along the rotation axis. In addition, its very-high-energy flux is marginally detectable with the Cherenkov Telescope Array, provided that the flare lasts longer than a night and that our viewing angle is about 45 degrees with respect to the rotation axis.
ISSN:2331-8422
DOI:10.48550/arxiv.1707.07916