59 research outputs found
Kerr Geodesics, the Penrose Process and Jet Collimation by a Black Hole
We re-examine the possibility that astrophysical jet collimation may arise
from the geometry of rotating black holes and the presence of high-energy
particles resulting from a Penrose process, without the help of magnetic
fields. Our analysis uses the Weyl coordinates, which are revealed better
adapted to the desired shape of the jets. We numerically integrate the
2D-geodesics equations. We give a detailed study of these geodesics and give
several numerical examples. Among them are a set of perfectly collimated
geodesics with asymptotes parallel to the axis, with
only depending on the ratios and
, where and are the parameters of the Kerr black hole,
the particle energy and the Carter's constant.Comment: Accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysics. AA style with 3 EPS figures.
Content amended after AA's refereeing. Discussion of geodesics also corrected
and expanded earlier. Conclusions amended accordingl
Gravitational Model of High Energy Particles in a Collimated Jet
Observations suggest that relativistic particles play a fundamental role in
the dynamics of jets emerging from active galactic nuclei as well as in their
interaction with the intracluster medium. However, no general consensus exists
concerning the acceleration mechanism of those high energy particles. A
gravitational acceleration mechanism is here proposed, in which particles
leaving precise regions within the ergosphere of a rotating supermassive black
hole produce a highly collimated flow. These particles follow unbound geodesics
which are asymptotically parallel to the spin axis of the black hole and are
characterized by the energy , the Carter constant and zero
angular momentum of the component . If environmental effects are
neglected, the present model predicts at distances of about 140 kpc from the
ergosphere the presence of electrons with energies around 9.4 GeV. The present
mechanism can also accelerate protons up to the highest energies observed in
cosmic rays by the present experiments.Comment: 27 pages and 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Astrophysical
Journal. arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1011.654
Static cylindrical symmetry and conformal flatness
We present the whole set of equations with regularity and matching conditions
required for the description of physically meaningful static cylindrically
symmmetric distributions of matter, smoothly matched to Levi-Civita vacuum
spacetime. It is shown that the conformally flat solution with equal principal
stresses represents an incompressible fluid. It is also proved that any
conformally flat cylindrically symmetric static source cannot be matched
through Darmois conditions to the Levi-Civita spacetime. Further evidence is
given that when the Newtonian mass per unit length reaches 1/2 the spacetime
has plane symmetry.Comment: 13 pages, Late
On the pre-nucleonsynthesis cosmological period
Physics, as known from our local, around—earth experience, meets some of itsapplicability limits at the time just preceding the period of primeval nucleosynthesis. Attentionis focussed here on the effects of the nucleon size. Radiation—belonging nucleons arefound to produce an extremely high pressure at kT ≈ some tens or hundreds of MeV. Quarkdeconfinement at higher energies would not change the results
Collimation of a spherical collisionless particles stream in Kerr space-time
We examine the propagation of collisionless particles emitted from a
spherical shell to infinity. The number distribution at infinity, calculated as
a function of the polar angle, exhibits a small deviation from uniformity. The
number of particles moving from the polar region toward the equatorial plane is
slightly larger than that of particles in the opposite direction, for an
emission radius in extreme Kerr space-time. This means that the black
hole spin exerts an anti-collimation effect on the particles stream propagating
along the rotation axis. We also confirm this property in the weak field limit.
The quadrupole moment of the central object produces a force toward the
equatorial plane. For a smaller emission radius , the absorption of
particles into the black hole, the non-uniformity and/or the anisotropy of the
emission distribution become much more important.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures; accepted for publication in CQ
Study of a class of non-polynomial oscillator potentials
We develop a variational method to obtain accurate bounds for the
eigenenergies of H = -Delta + V in arbitrary dimensions N>1, where V(r) is the
nonpolynomial oscillator potential V(r) = r^2 + lambda r^2/(1+gr^2), lambda in
(-infinity,\infinity), g>0. The variational bounds are compared with results
previously obtained in the literature. An infinite set of exact solutions is
also obtained and used as a source of comparison eigenvalues.Comment: 16 page
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