2004/02/29 by S. S. Komissarov · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #Active galactic nucleus #Astronomy #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Black hole (networking) #Classical mechanics #Magnetic monopole #Magnetohydrodynamic drive #Magnetohydrodynamics #Nuclear physics #Physics #Plasma #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Quantum electrodynamics #Quantum mechanics #Relativistic beaming #Relativistic quantum chemistry #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1111/j.1365-2966.2004.07738.x
published as Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 350 (2004) 1431 · MNRAS in press
arxiv created 2004/03/10 · openalex publication_date 2004/05/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
In this paper, we report on the results of the first ever time-dependent general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of the magnetically dominated monopole magnetospheres of black holes. It is found that the numerical solution evolves towards a stable steady-state solution which is very close to the corresponding force-free solution found by Blandford & Znajek. Contrary to the recent claims, the particle inertia does not become dynamically important near the event horizon and the force-free approximation provides a proper framework for magnetically dominated magnetospheres of black holes. For the first time, our numerical simulations show the development of an ultrarelativistic particle wind from a rotating black hole. However, the flow remains Poynting-dominated all the way up to the fast critical point. This suggests that the details of the so-called ‘astrophysical load’, where the electromagnetic energy is transferred to particles, may have no effect on the efficiency of the Blandford–Znajek mechanism.