Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Prakapenia, Mikalai, Vereshchagin, Gregory
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
Subjects:
Online Access:https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.03094
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866929718684549120
author Prakapenia, Mikalai
Vereshchagin, Gregory
author_facet Prakapenia, Mikalai
Vereshchagin, Gregory
contents Recently Usov's mechanism of pair creation on the surface of compact astrophysical objects has been revisited [1] with a conclusion that the pair creation rate was previously underestimated in the literature by nearly two orders of magnitude. Here we consider an alternative hypothesis of pair creation due to a perturbation of the surface of a compact object. Radial perturbation is induced in hydrodynamic velocity resulting in a microscopic displacement of the negatively charged component with respect to the positively charged one. The result depends on the ratio between the spatial scale of the perturbation $λ$ and the mean free path $l$. When $λ\sim l$ the perturbation energy is converted into a burst of electron-positron pairs which are created in collisionless plasma oscillations at the surface; after energy excess is dissipated electrosphere returns to its electrostatic configuration. When instead $λ\gg l$, the perturbation is thermalized, its energy is transformed into heat, and pairs are created continuously by the heated electrosphere. We discuss the relevant astrophysical scenarios.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2502_03094
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Pair creation from radial electromagnetic perturbation of a compact astrophysical object
Prakapenia, Mikalai
Vereshchagin, Gregory
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Recently Usov's mechanism of pair creation on the surface of compact astrophysical objects has been revisited [1] with a conclusion that the pair creation rate was previously underestimated in the literature by nearly two orders of magnitude. Here we consider an alternative hypothesis of pair creation due to a perturbation of the surface of a compact object. Radial perturbation is induced in hydrodynamic velocity resulting in a microscopic displacement of the negatively charged component with respect to the positively charged one. The result depends on the ratio between the spatial scale of the perturbation $λ$ and the mean free path $l$. When $λ\sim l$ the perturbation energy is converted into a burst of electron-positron pairs which are created in collisionless plasma oscillations at the surface; after energy excess is dissipated electrosphere returns to its electrostatic configuration. When instead $λ\gg l$, the perturbation is thermalized, its energy is transformed into heat, and pairs are created continuously by the heated electrosphere. We discuss the relevant astrophysical scenarios.
title Pair creation from radial electromagnetic perturbation of a compact astrophysical object
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2502.03094