Ergosphere-driven winds

Abstract

This paper is a discussion of a physical mechanism that allows large-scale magnetic fields to torque rapidly rotating black holes in an astrophysical context. The physics which is involved is that plasma in the ergosphere must rotate. Thus, if ergospheric plasma gets frozen onto large-scale magnetic field lines, then it can drive a magnetic wind to infinity, as is conjectured to occur in field-aligned pulsars. Included in this paper is a discussion of ingoing magnetic winds that accrete either toward the event horizon or to the equatorial plane in the ergosphere.

Identifiers

DOI

10.1086/168717

Citations and references