Boosting jet power in black hole spacetimes

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that black hole kinetic energy, including both spin and motion, can be harnessed to produce more powerful jets than previously understood, especially in binary systems with high angular momentum.

Contribution

It generalizes jet power mechanisms to include kinetic energy from black hole motion, beyond the traditional rotational energy extraction.

Findings

Boosted black holes produce stronger Poynting jets.

Binary black hole systems with higher angular momentum emit increased jet power.

Enhanced jet luminosity correlates with black hole spin and orbital angular momentum.

Abstract

The extraction of rotational energy from a spinning black hole via the Blandford-Znajek mechanism has long been understood as an important component in models to explain energetic jets from compact astrophysical sources. Here we show more generally that the kinetic energy of the black hole, both rotational and translational, can be tapped, thereby producing even more luminous jets powered by the interaction of the black hole with its surrounding plasma. We study the resulting Poynting jet that arises from single boosted black holes and binary black hole systems. In the latter case, we find that increasing the orbital angular momenta of the system and/or the spins of the individual black holes results in an enhanced Poynting flux.