Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Dec 2001
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001aas...19916122l&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, 199th AAS Meeting, #161.22; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 34, p.575
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Two most important problems for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are how to generate an enormous amount of energy up to 1054 ergs, and how to make the energy clean enough (i.e. with less load of baryons) for providing a huge bulk Lorentz factor > 300. Here we present a tokamak model for GRBs. A toroidal electric current flows on the surface of a dense plasma torus spinning around a Kerr black hole, which generates a poloidal magnetic field outside the torus. On the surface of the torus the magnetic field is parallel to the surface. The closed magnetic field lines winding around the torus compress and confine the plasma in the torus, as in the case of tokamaks in controlled nuclear fusion. If the magnetic field is strong enough (typically 1015 Gauss or higher), the baryonic contamination from the plasma in the torus is greatly suppressed and a clean magnetosphere of electron-positron pairs is built up around the black hole. If some magnetic field lines threading the black hole are open and connect with plasma loads, clean energy can be extracted from the Kerr black hole by the Blandford-Znajek mechanism. The energy extracted from the black hole is converted to the kinetic energy of the electron-positron pairs in the magnetosphere around the black hole, which generates two oppositely directed jets of electron-positron pairs with super-high bulk Lorentz factors. The jets collide and interact with the interstellar medium, which produces gamma-ray bursts and the afterglows.
No associations
LandOfFree
A Tokamak Model for Gamma-Ray Bursts does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with A Tokamak Model for Gamma-Ray Bursts, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and A Tokamak Model for Gamma-Ray Bursts will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1238198