Blandford-Znajek power as a strong-gravity signature

TL;DR

This paper reviews the Blandford-Znajek mechanism for black hole jet launching, emphasizing the importance of higher-order perturbative corrections and their potential to test general relativity through strong-gravity signatures.

Contribution

It introduces the role of higher-order perturbative corrections in Blandford-Znajek theory and proposes using BZ power as a test for general relativity versus alternative gravity theories.

Findings

Perturbative corrections are essential in high-spin regimes.

BZ power depends on the underlying gravity theory.

Potential to test gravity theories with horizon-scale observations.

Abstract

The Blandford-Znajek mechanism is an electromagnetic manifestation of the Penrose process that currently constitutes the best theoretical candidate to explain the launching of relativistic jets by black holes. In this talk we offer a modern review about the Blandford-Znajek mechanism and the analytic construction of black hole magnetospheres. Higher order perturbative corrections are crucial in order to produce results that are complementary to numerical simulations when the black hole is in the high-spin regime, and can potentially predict new features about the non-perturbative structure of the Blandford-Znajek theory. Moreover, we show by means of an explicit example that these perturbative corrections depend in a non-degenerate manner on the underlying theory of gravity considered, enabling one to use the BZ power emitted as a strong-gravity signature to test General Relativity against alternative theories of gravity on future horizon-scale observations.