Higher Order Terms of Kerr Parameter for Blandford-Znajek Monopole Solution

TL;DR

This paper extends the perturbative analysis of the Blandford-Znajek mechanism for Kerr black holes to fourth order, revealing divergence issues and improving energy flux estimates, but indicating the need for even higher order terms for accuracy.

Contribution

It provides the first fourth order perturbative solution for the Blandford-Znajek monopole, analyzing its divergence and comparing it with numerical results to assess accuracy.

Findings

Fourth order terms diverge at infinity, indicating breakdown of perturbation.

Fourth order solution better matches numerical results than second order.

Higher order terms are needed for accurate modeling at large Kerr parameters.

Abstract

Blandford-Znajek mechanism, by which the rotational energy of a black hole is extracted through electromagnetic fields, is one of the promising candidates as an essential process of the central engine of active compact objects such as Gamma-Ray Bursts. The only known analytical solution of this mechanism is the perturbative monopole solution for Kerr parameter a up to the second order terms. In order to apply Blandford-Znajek mechanism to rapidly rotating black holes, we try to obtain the perturbation solution up to the fourth order. As a result, we find that the fourth order terms of the vector potential diverge at infinity, which implies that the perturbation approach breaks down at large distance from the black hole. Although there are some uncertainties about the solution due to the unknown boundary condition at infinity for the fourth order terms, we can derive the evaluation of the total energy flux extracted from the black hole up to fourth order of a without any ambiguity. Further more, from the comparison between the numerical solution that is valid for 0<a<1 and the fourth order solution, we find that the fourth order solution reproduces the numerical result better than the second order solution. At the same time, since the fourth order solution does not match well with numerical result at large a, we conclude that more higher order terms are required to reproduce the numerical result.