Role of the gravitomagnetic field in accelerating accretion disk matter to polar jets

TL;DR

This paper explores how gravitomagnetic fields generated by accretion disk matter around black holes can accelerate particles vertically and contribute to the formation of collimated bipolar jets, highlighting a novel general relativistic effect.

Contribution

It introduces a new mechanism involving gravitomagnetic fields and frame-dragging effects that influence jet formation in black hole accretion disks.

Findings

Gravitomagnetic fields accelerate neutral particles upward near the disk.

Frame-dragging twists particle trajectories, aiding jet collimation.

The effect provides a new way to identify general relativistic influences in astrophysical jets.

Abstract

We show that the motion of the neutral masses in an accretion disk orbiting a black hole creates a general-relativistic magnetic-like (gravitomagnetic) field that vertically accelerates neutral particles near the accretion disk upward and then inward toward the axis of the accretion disk. Even though this gravitomagnetic field alone does not achieve collimated jets, it is a novel means to identify one general relativistic effect from a much more complicated problem. In addition, as the accelerated material above or below the accretion disk nears the axis with a nearly vertical direction, a frame-dragging effect twists the trajectories around the axis thus contributing to the formation of collimated bipolar jets.