Pair creation in the vortex-driven magnetic

fields of black holes

arXiv:2408.01611v1 [astro-ph.HE] 3 Aug 2024

Osmanov Z.3∗,
1. ISchool of Physics, Free University of Tbilisi, 0183, Tbilisi
2. E. Kharadze Georgian National Astrophysical Observatory, Abastumani 0301,
Georgia

Abstract

In this article, we study the effects of the pair creation in the vortex-driven magnetic
field on the radiation pattern of giant black holes. In particular, for a sufficiently wide
spectrum of supermassive black holes, we studied what energy photons will decay
under the influence of a strong magnetic field, producing electron-positron pairs.
Depending on particular physical parameters, it has been shown that in certain
scenarios high or very high energy emission generated by black holes will be strongly
suppressed, thus, will be unable to escape a zone where radiation is generated.

Key words: pair creation; black holes; instabilities

1 Introduction

It is widely accepted that the processes taking place in active galactic nuclei
(AGN) depend on the characteristics of their magnetospheres [1,2]. In particu-
lar, the physical properties of the magnetosphere are crucial in the study of jet
formation [3], particle acceleration [4,5], non-thermal radiation [5,6], heating
of the magnetosphere [7] and various instabilities [8,9].

In [10] it has been shown that the production of electron-positron pairs is very
important in astrophysical processes and may account for the pattern of ra-
diation we observe in the sky. For example, it is believed that the presence of
electron-positron pairs might determine as the characteristics of non-thermal
radiation [11,12] and the galactic γ-ray background [13], as well as the forma-
tion of relativistic beams [14].

A dominant pair creation mechanism in the ambient of black holes is γ + γ

process, when relatively low energy photons originating from the accretion disk

Preprint submitted to Elsevier 6 August 2024

encounter the high energy photons produced in the photon sea of the accretion
disk by means of the inverse Compton scattering [1,15]. In the framework of the
Penrose process [16], the accretion disk photons, after reaching the ergosphere
and experiencing the blueshift effect, might reach the GeV threshold, which
is enough to produce pairs after scattering against protons. We also have
shown [17] that under certain conditions, the centrifugally driven exponentially
amplifying electric fields [18] might reach the Schwinger threshold, 1.4 × 1014
statvolt cm−1 [19,20,21] with efficient production of electron-positron pairs.

Generally speaking, if the magnetic field, B, is extremely high (which takes

place in the magnetospheres of pulsars), an additional channel might come
into the game, when high energy photons via the reaction γ + B → e± + B
are decayed into pairs. This happens in pulsars where magnetic fields are
extremely strong and are of the order of 1012 G close to the neutron star’s
surface [22]. In the black hole magnetospheres if the magnetic field is produced
by the equipartition scenario (when the emission energy density is of the order
of that of the radiation) the value of B might vary in the range 10 − 104 G,
which is not enough for the realization of the aforementioned process.

Recently, in [23,24] a new possibility of generation of magnetic field has been

studied. It was found that, if the photon mass is originated from the Higgs
mechanism, the uniform Maxwellian magnetic field can be maintained by
means of the vorticity of photons. In this scenario the magnetic field energy
is of the order of the black hole’s total energy leading to such high values of
magnetic fields that the aforementioned channel γ + B → e± + B becomes
significant in the pair production process.

In the paper we study this particular case and for a wide range of black hole
masses we explore the effect of pair creation on an observational pattern.

The paper is organized as follows: in Sec.2, we discuss the main aspects of the
considered process and applying to black holes we obtain results; and in Sec.
3, we summarize them.

2 Discussion and Results

In this chapter, we review in detail the aforementioned pair creation channel

for magnetospheres of supermassive black holes and estimate the rate of the
process and the efficiency population of magnetospheres.

By assuming the condition, B02 Rg3 ≃ Mc2 , for the produced magnetic field

2
 103 106

Suppressed region 105

Suppressed region
2
10
ǫ (GeV)

ǫ (GeV)
104
m

m
101

Allowed region 103 Allowed region

100 102
10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 106 107 108 109
r/R M
g n

(a) (b)

Fig. 1. On Fig 1a we plot the radial dependence of ǫm . The set of parameters

is M = 4 × 106 M⊙ , r0 ≃ 10Rg , θ = 900 . On Fig. 1b we show the graph of
ǫm (M ). The set of parameters is the same as in Fig. 1a, except r = 100Rg and
M = (106 − 109 ) × M⊙ .

close to the event horizon one obtains

c4 2.4 × 1012
B0 ≃ ≃ G, (1)
MG3/2 M7

where Rg = GM/c2 represents the gravitational radius, G is the gravitational

constant, M denotes the black hole’s mass, M7 = M/(107 ×M⊙ ), M⊙ ≃ 2×1033
g represents the solar mass and c is the speed of light. As it is evident, the
magnetic field is of the same order of magnitude as in pulsars and therefore,
pair creation via the channel γ + B → e± + B might be significant.

In general, if the photon energy, ǫ, satisfies the condition ǫ sin θ ≥ 2mc2 , (θ is

the angle of the photon’s direction of propagation versus the magnetic field
and m represents electron’s mass), it can produce pairs, but the probabil-
ity of the process strongly depends on the magnetic field. In particular, the
corresponding attenuation coefficient is given by [25]

π 1 B(r) sin θ
α= T (χ), (2)
137 λC Bc

where λC is the Compton wave-length, Bc ≃ 4.41×1013 G, χ = 21 (ǫ/mc2 )(B/Bc ),

T (χ) = 0.46 exp{−4/(3χ)} if χ << 1

T (χ) = 0.60 χ−1/3 if χ >> 1, (3)

3
and we assume that the dipolar magnetic field B(r) ≃ B0 r 3 /Rg3 . As we will
see later, for the reasonable physical parameters χ << 1.

As an assumption, considering the aforementioned condition, for the location

of the absorbing surface (where the photons are absorbed and the pairs are
created), one can write α(r − r0 ) ≃ 1, leading to the expression of minimum
photon energy (normalised on the electron’s rest energy) when pair creation
starts
!3 " 3 !#−1
ǫm 8 Bc r 0.46π B0 sin θ Rg

≃ ln (r − r0 ) , (4)
mc 2 3 B0 sin θ Rg 137λc Bc r

where r0 is the radial coordinate where high energy photons are generated.

As an example, on Fig. 1a we show the radial behaviour of ǫm (r) for the black
hole located in our galaxy SgrA* (M = 4×106 M⊙ [26]). The set of parameters
is M = 4 × 106 M⊙ , r0 ≃ 10Rg , θ = 900 . From the obtained values one can
straightforwardly show that our assumption χ << 1 is satisfied. We have
examined the interval (10 − 100) × Rg for the radial coordinate, because it is
widely accepted that a region where the high energy non-thermal radiation is
generated lies in the mentioned area [27]. As it is clear, the threshold photon
energy is a continuously increasing function of the radial coordinate, which is a
natural result, because for larger values of r, the magnetic field is smaller and
one requires more energetic photons for driving the pair creation. From this
plot one can conclude that if the radiation is generated in the inner region
(r ≃ 10Rg ), only photons with energies less than ∼ 1 GeV can escape the
zone. Higher energy photons can escape only if they are generated in the outer
regions, in particular, for r ≃ 100Rg only the photons with energies greater
than 1 TeV are suppressed, which means that the corresponding luminosity
should be much smaller than the bolometric luminosity. In this context it is
important to emphasize that the multiwavelength observations, apart from
the strong radio and the hard X-ray emission, reveal also emission in the TeV
domain with the flux 4 × 10−12 TeV/(cm2 s2 ) [28], which when translated into
the corresponding luminosity is much smaller than the bolometric luminosity,
5 × 1035 erg/s [28], of this object.

On Fig. 1b we plot the graph ǫm (M). The set of parameters is the same as in
Fig. 1, except r = 100Rg and M = (106 − 109 ) × M⊙ . Like the previous case,
the minimum energy is an increasing function of the black hole mass, because,
as it is clear from Eq. (1), the higher the mass the smaller the magnetic field,
requiring the higher energies of photons to provoke the pair creation. From
this figure one can conclude that emission generated in the outer region cannot
escape the zone if the energy exceeds ∼ 250 GeV (M = 106 × M⊙ ) and ∼ 250
TeV (M = 109 × M⊙ ). From the list of the supermassive black holes, one of
the interesting examples is M87, exceeding the solar mass by several billion

4
times. This object is mostly visible in low spectral energy bands < 1 TeV,
which in light of the vortex magnetic field could be quite interesting.

It is clear that the photons with energies grater than ǫm will be strongly
suppressed by the pair creation process and therefore, one of the important
signatures of the existence of the vortex driven magnetic field, could be the ab-
sence or at least the presence of strongly suppressed fluxes from the mentioned
spectral zone.

Since the decaying photons have at least GeV energies, the produced electron-
positron pairs will be moderately relativistic with the Lorentz factor, γ ≃
1GeV /(2×0.511MeV ) ≃ 1000. Therefore, this particles will escape a radiation
zone (r ≃ 100Rg ) of the black hole in a time-scale of the order of Rg /c ≃ 5×103
sec, implying that their encounter with the interstellar medium should be
studied and this will be one of the future priorities to explore.

3 Conclusions

Based on an assumption that some black holes might generate the vortex
driven magnetic field, we have considered a pair creation channel γ + B− >
e± + B, which only occurs in very strong magnetic fields and normally takes
place in pulsars.

Examining the black hole located in the galactic center - SgrA*, and by taking
the attenuation coefficient of photons into account, we have found that photons
with & 1 GeV will never leave the black hole zone if they are produced at
∼ 10Rg . If on the other hand, the emission is produced in the outer region,
∼ 100Rg , only photons with energies exceeding ∼ 1 TeV will be strongly
suppressed.

In the same manner, for a wide variety of supermassive black holes, 106−9 ×M⊙ ,
we have estimated the minimum energies of the photons, when by means of the
aforementioned channel the emission for the corresponding energies is strongly
suppressed and does not leave the region where it has been generated. In
particular, considering the generation at ∼ 100Rg , the threshold energies will
be of the order of 250 GeV (M = 106 × M⊙ ) and 250 TeV (M = 109 × M⊙ )
respectively.

These estimates could be significant to identify the origin of the magnetic field
- it is of vortex-driven or not.

5
4 Acknowledgments

The research was supported by a German DAAD scholarship within the pro-
gram Research Stays for University Academics and Scientists, 2024 (ID: 57693448),
and was partially supported by Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation
of Georgia (SRNSFG) Grant: FR-23-18821. ZO acknowledges Max Planck
Institute for Physics (Munich) for hospitality during the completion of this
project.

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