Penrose pair production in massive extreme Kerr black holes.
Abstract
We show that in the case of very massive (greater than 100 million solar masses) Kerr black holes with extreme ranges of angular momentum, between 1 and 0.998, the possibility of photon-induced Penrose pair production (PPP) in the ergosphere is very plausible. The pairs that escape the ergosphere are of very high energy and of the order of the GeV rest mass of the Penrose-accreted protons which participate in the photon-induced pair-production process. Application of this model to the case of quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) is shown to lead to reasonable predictions about their masses, lifetimes, and luminosities. The physical mechanism is very general and can also be applied to other types of active galactic nuclei.
- Publication:
-
The Astrophysical Journal
- Pub Date:
- November 1978
- DOI:
- 10.1086/156581
- Bibcode:
- 1978ApJ...226...32L
- Keywords:
-
- Black Holes (Astronomy);
- Pair Production;
- Particle Collisions;
- Active Galactic Nuclei;
- Angular Momentum;
- Energy Sources;
- Photons;
- Protons;
- Quasars;
- Astrophysics;
- Black Holes:Kerr Black Holes