Black hole lightning due to particle acceleration at subhorizon scales
Abstract
Supermassive black holes with masses of millions to billions of solar masses are commonly found in the centers of galaxies. Astronomers seek to image jet formation using radio interferometry, but still suffer from insufficient angular resolution. An alternative method to resolve small structures is to measure the time variability of their emission. Here, we report on gamma-ray observations of the radio galaxy IC 310 obtained with the MAGIC telescopes revealing variability with doubling time scales faster than 4.8 min. Causality constrains the size of the emission region to be smaller than 20\% of the gravitational radius of its central black hole. We suggest that the emission is associated with pulsar-like particle acceleration by the electric field across a magnetospheric gap at the base of the radio jet.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1412.4936,
title = {Black hole lightning due to particle acceleration at subhorizon scales},
author = {MAGIC Collaboration and J. Aleksić and S. Ansoldi and L. A. Antonelli and P. Antoranz and A. Babic and P. Bangale and J. A. Barrio and J. Becerra González and W. Bednarek and E. Bernardini and B. Biasuzzi and A. Biland and O. Blanch and S. Bonnefoy and G. Bonnoli and F. Borracci and T. Bretz and E. Carmona and A. Carosi and P. Colin and E. Colombo and J. L. Contreras and J. Cortina and S. Covino and P. Da Vela and F. Dazzi and A. De Angelis and G. De Caneva and B. De Lotto and E. de Oña Wilhelmi and C. Delgado Mendez and D. Dominis Prester and D. Dorner and M. Doro and S. Einecke and D. Eisenacher and D. Elsaesser and M. V. Fonseca and L. Font and K. Frantzen and C. Fruck and D. Galindo and R. J. García López and M. Garczarczyk and D. Garrido Terrats and M. Gaug and N. Godinović and A. González Muñoz and S. R. Gozzini and D. Hadasch and Y. Hanabata and M. Hayashida and J. Herrera and D. Hildebrand and J. Hose and D. Hrupec and W. Idec and V. Kadenius and H. Kellermann and K. Kodani and Y. Konno and J. Krause and H. Kubo and J. Kushida and A. La Barbera and D. Lelas and N. Lewandowska and E. Lindfors and S. Lombardi and F. Longo and M. López and R. López-Coto and A. López-Oramas and E. Lorenz and I. Lozano and M. Makariev and K. Mallot and G. Maneva and N. Mankuzhiyil and K. Mannheim and L. Maraschi and B. Marcote and M. Mariotti and M. Martínez and D. Mazin and U. Menzel and J. M. Miranda and R. Mirzoyan and A. Moralejo and P. Munar-Adrover and D. Nakajima and A. Niedzwiecki and K. Nilsson and K. Nishijima and K. Noda and R. Orito and A. Overkemping and S. Paiano and M. Palatiello and D. Paneque and R. Paoletti and J. M. Paredes and X. Paredes-Fortuny and M. Persic and J. Poutanen and P. G. Prada Moroni and E. Prandini and I. Puljak and R. Reinthal and W. Rhode and M. Ribó and J. Rico and J. Rodriguez Garcia and S. Rügamer and T. Saito and K. Saito and K. Satalecka and V. Scalzotto and V. Scapin and C. Schultz and T. Schweizer and S. N. Shore and A. Sillanpää and J. Sitarek and I. Snidaric and D. Sobczynska and F. Spanier and V. Stamatescu and A. Stamerra and T. Steinbring and J. Storz and M. Strzys and L. Takalo and H. Takami and F. Tavecchio and P. Temnikov and T. Terzić and D. Tescaro and M. Teshima and J. Thaele and O. Tibolla and D. F. Torres and T. Toyama and A. Treves and M. Uellenbeck and P. Vogler and R. Zanin and M. Kadler and R. Schulz and E. Ros and U. Bach and F. Krauß and J. Wilms},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1412.4936},
year = {2014}
}
Comments
19 pages, 10 figures, includes Supplementary Materials