Gravitational Model of High Energy Particles in a Collimated Jet

TL;DR

This paper proposes a gravitational acceleration model for high-energy particles in astrophysical jets, suggesting particles gain energy near rotating black holes and explaining observed cosmic ray energies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel gravitational mechanism for particle acceleration in jets, focusing on particles escaping the ergosphere of rotating black holes.

Findings

Electrons can reach energies around 9.4 GeV at 140 kpc from the ergosphere.

Protons can be accelerated to the highest energies observed in cosmic rays.

The model predicts highly collimated particle flows aligned with black hole spin axes.

Abstract

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 $E$, the Carter constant ${\cal Q}$ and zero angular momentum of the component $L_z$. 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.