Current sheet alignment in oblique black hole magnetospheres -- a black hole pulsar?

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Selvi, Sebastiaan, Porth, Oliver, Ripperda, Bart, Sironi, Lorenzo
Format: Preprint
Published: 2024
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author Selvi, Sebastiaan
Porth, Oliver
Ripperda, Bart
Sironi, Lorenzo
author_facet Selvi, Sebastiaan
Porth, Oliver
Ripperda, Bart
Sironi, Lorenzo
contents We study the magnetospheric evolution of a non-accreting spinning black hole (BH) with an initially inclined split monopole magnetic field by means of three-dimensional general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations. This serves as a model for a neutron star (NS) collapse or a BH-NS merger remnant after the inherited magnetosphere has settled into a split monopole field creating a striped wind. We show that the initially inclined split monopolar current sheet aligns over time with the BH equatorial plane. The inclination angle evolves exponentially towards alignment, with an alignment timescale that is inversely proportional to the square of the BH angular velocity, where higher spin results in faster alignment. Furthermore, magnetic reconnection in the current sheet leads to exponential decay of event horizon penetrating magnetic flux with nearly the same timescale for all considered BH spins. In addition, we present relations for the BH mass and spin in terms of the period and alignment timescale of the striped wind. The explored scenario of a rotating, aligning and reconnecting current sheet can potentially lead to multimessenger electromagnetic counterparts to a gravitational wave event due to the acceleration of particles powering high-energy radiation, plasmoid mergers resulting in coherent radio signals, and pulsating emission due to the initial misalignment of the BH magnetosphere.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2402_16055
institution arXiv
publishDate 2024
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Current sheet alignment in oblique black hole magnetospheres -- a black hole pulsar?
Selvi, Sebastiaan
Porth, Oliver
Ripperda, Bart
Sironi, Lorenzo
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
We study the magnetospheric evolution of a non-accreting spinning black hole (BH) with an initially inclined split monopole magnetic field by means of three-dimensional general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics simulations. This serves as a model for a neutron star (NS) collapse or a BH-NS merger remnant after the inherited magnetosphere has settled into a split monopole field creating a striped wind. We show that the initially inclined split monopolar current sheet aligns over time with the BH equatorial plane. The inclination angle evolves exponentially towards alignment, with an alignment timescale that is inversely proportional to the square of the BH angular velocity, where higher spin results in faster alignment. Furthermore, magnetic reconnection in the current sheet leads to exponential decay of event horizon penetrating magnetic flux with nearly the same timescale for all considered BH spins. In addition, we present relations for the BH mass and spin in terms of the period and alignment timescale of the striped wind. The explored scenario of a rotating, aligning and reconnecting current sheet can potentially lead to multimessenger electromagnetic counterparts to a gravitational wave event due to the acceleration of particles powering high-energy radiation, plasmoid mergers resulting in coherent radio signals, and pulsating emission due to the initial misalignment of the BH magnetosphere.
title Current sheet alignment in oblique black hole magnetospheres -- a black hole pulsar?
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2402.16055