# Extraction of energy from an extremal rotating electrovacuum black hole: Particle collisions along the axis of symmetry

## TL;DR

This paper extends the analysis of high-energy particle collisions near extremal rotating charged black holes, showing potential for energy extraction without upper bounds but also highlighting significant practical limitations.

## Contribution

It generalizes the BSW effect to extremal rotating electrovacuum black holes, including the Schnittman process, and discusses implications for astrophysical energy extraction.

## Key findings

- No unconditional upper bounds on escaping particle energy.
- High-energy collisions can occur near extremal black holes.
- Practical energy extraction faces significant caveats.

## Abstract

High-energy collisions can occur for radially moving charged test particles in the extremal Reissner-Nordstr\"om spacetime if one of the particles is fine-tuned and the collision point is taken close to the horizon. This is an analogy of the Banados-Silk-West (BSW) effect, first described for extremal Kerr black holes. However, it differs significantly in terms of energy extraction: unlike for the original BSW process, no unconditional upper bounds on mass and energy of an escaping test particle produced in the collision were found for the charged version. We show that these results can be replicated for the motion of charged test particles along the axis of a general extremal rotating electrovacuum black hole, also including the Schnittman-type process with reflected fine-tuned particles. This brings the possibility of high-energy extraction closer to astrophysical black holes, which can be fast spinning and have a small "Wald charge" due to interaction with external magnetic fields. Nevertheless, we find numerous caveats that can make the energy extraction unfeasible despite the lack of unconditional kinematic bounds.