2005/02/17 by Amir Levinson, Levinson, Amir
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #Electrical and Electromagnetic Research #FOS: Physical sciences #Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research #Space Technology and Applications #Superconducting Materials and Applications #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0502346
34 pages, 5 figs, invited book chapter, to appear in "Black Holes: Research and Development", Nova Science Publishers. Typos corrected, some discussion added
openalex publication_date 2005/02/17 · arxiv created 2005/07/03 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
It is widely believed that some classes of high-energy transients may be\npowered by the rotational energy of a rapidly spinning black hole. The energy\nextraction mechanism commonly discussed involves macroscopic magnetic fields\nthat are produced by currents flowing in a disk or torus surrounding the black\nhole. In spite of large efforts that have led to impressive progress in our\nunderstanding of the physics of magnetized flows in Kerr geometry, several\nimportant issues remain unresolved: the nature of the load in the\nBlandford-Znajeck model, the causality and stability of a force-free\nmagnetosphere, global current closure, and the role of boundary conditions on\nthe channels through which the extracted energy is released. This chapter\nprovides an account of recent work that addresses some of those open questions.\n