Class
Article
College
College of Science
Faculty Mentor
Maria Rodriguez
Presentation Type
Oral Presentation
Abstract
Out of the poles of some black holes come streams of charged particles, jets that travel across the universe to occasionally sweep past our remote planet Earth to be detected by scientists. Although the mechanism to produce these jets is currently unknown, one theory is the Blandford-Znajek process. This theory describes a spinning black hole surrounded by an electromagnetic field, where the extreme spin on the black hole drags and twists the electromagnetic field around itself, just as we know the spin drags the very fabric of spacetime. The twisted electromagnetic field may catch charged particles near the black hole’s event horizon and funnel them to the two poles, potentially producing black hole jets that travel at a significant fraction of the speed of light. This project’s goal is to find possible mathematical solutions to describe the situations that could give rise to these jets. More specifically, we solve Einstein’s equations in an asymptotically flat spacetime for a spinning black hole in an electromagnetic field. The Blandford-Znajek model then allows us to determine whether a particular solution allows for the extraction of energy from a black hole. Unlike other research studying this phenomenon, we study only particles in the immediate vicinity of the black hole’s event horizon, disregarding any accretion disk or effect of gravity from any object but the black hole. In this presentation, we expound upon the background and methods of the research, and discuss our results thus far.
Start Date
4-9-2020 1:00 PM
End Date
4-9-2020 2:00 PM
Investigating the Blandford-Znajek Process for Black Hole Jets
Out of the poles of some black holes come streams of charged particles, jets that travel across the universe to occasionally sweep past our remote planet Earth to be detected by scientists. Although the mechanism to produce these jets is currently unknown, one theory is the Blandford-Znajek process. This theory describes a spinning black hole surrounded by an electromagnetic field, where the extreme spin on the black hole drags and twists the electromagnetic field around itself, just as we know the spin drags the very fabric of spacetime. The twisted electromagnetic field may catch charged particles near the black hole’s event horizon and funnel them to the two poles, potentially producing black hole jets that travel at a significant fraction of the speed of light. This project’s goal is to find possible mathematical solutions to describe the situations that could give rise to these jets. More specifically, we solve Einstein’s equations in an asymptotically flat spacetime for a spinning black hole in an electromagnetic field. The Blandford-Znajek model then allows us to determine whether a particular solution allows for the extraction of energy from a black hole. Unlike other research studying this phenomenon, we study only particles in the immediate vicinity of the black hole’s event horizon, disregarding any accretion disk or effect of gravity from any object but the black hole. In this presentation, we expound upon the background and methods of the research, and discuss our results thus far.