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Black hole flares: ejection of accreted magnetic flux through 3D plasmoid-mediated reconnection

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arxiv 2109.15115 v3 pith:FOG6Q74N submitted 2021-09-30 astro-ph.HE gr-qcphysics.plasm-ph

Bart Ripperda , Matthew Liska , Koushik Chatterjee , Gibwa Musoke , Alexander A. Philippov , Sera B. Markoff , Alexander Tchekhovskoy , Ziri Younsi This is my paper
classification astro-ph.HEgr-qcphysics.plasm-ph
keywords reconnectionfluxplasmoid-mediatedblackbundlesflareslow-densitymagnetic
verification ladder T0 review T1 audit T2 compute T3 formal
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abstract

Magnetic reconnection can power bright, rapid flares originating from the inner magnetosphere of accreting black holes. We conduct extremely high resolution ($5376\times2304\times2304$ cells) general-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations, capturing plasmoid-mediated reconnection in a 3D magnetically arrested disk for the first time. We show that an equatorial, plasmoid-unstable current sheet forms in a transient, non-axisymmetric, low-density magnetosphere within the inner few Schwarzschild radii. Magnetic flux bundles escape from the event horizon through reconnection at the universal plasmoid-mediated rate in this current sheet. The reconnection feeds on the highly-magnetized plasma in the jets and heats the plasma that ends up trapped in flux bundles to temperatures proportional to the jet's magnetization. The escaped flux bundles can complete a full orbit as low-density hot spots, consistent with Sgr A$^{*}$ observations by the GRAVITY interferometer. Reconnection near the horizon produces sufficiently energetic plasma to explain flares from accreting black holes, such as the TeV emission observed from M87. The drop in mass accretion rate during the flare, and the resulting low-density magnetosphere make it easier for very high energy photons produced by reconnection-accelerated particles to escape. The extreme resolution results in a converged plasmoid-mediated reconnection rate that directly determines the timescales and properties of the flare.

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Cited by 9 Pith papers

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