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Probing Black Hole Magnetic Fields with QED Caiazzo, Ilaria; Heyl, Jeremy
Abstract
The effect of vacuum birefringence is one of the first predictions of quantum electrodynamics (QED): the presence of a charged Dirac field makes the vacuum birefringent when threaded by magnetic fields. This effect, extremely weak for terrestrial magnetic fields, becomes important for highly magnetized astrophysical objects, such as accreting black holes. In the X-ray regime, the polarization of photons traveling in the magnetosphere of a black hole is not frozen at emission but is changed by the local magnetic field. We show that, for photons traveling along the plane of the disk, where the field is expected to be partially organized, this results in a depolarization of the X-ray radiation. Because the amount of depolarization depends on the strength of the magnetic field, this effect can provide a way to probe the magnetic field in black-hole accretion disks and to study the role of magnetic fields in astrophysical accretion in general.
Item Metadata
Title |
Probing Black Hole Magnetic Fields with QED
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Creator | |
Publisher |
Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute
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Date Issued |
2018-05-24
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Description |
The effect of vacuum birefringence is one of the first predictions of quantum electrodynamics (QED): the presence of a charged Dirac field makes the vacuum birefringent when threaded by magnetic fields. This effect, extremely weak for terrestrial magnetic fields, becomes important for highly magnetized astrophysical objects, such as accreting black holes. In the X-ray regime, the polarization of photons traveling in the magnetosphere of a black hole is not frozen at emission but is changed by the local magnetic field. We show that, for photons traveling along the plane of the disk, where the field is expected to be partially organized, this results in a depolarization of the X-ray radiation. Because the amount of depolarization depends on the strength of the magnetic field, this effect can provide a way to probe the magnetic field in black-hole accretion disks and to study the role of magnetic fields in astrophysical accretion in general.
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Subject | |
Genre | |
Type | |
Language |
eng
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Date Available |
2019-06-25
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Provider |
Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library
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Rights |
CC BY 4.0
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DOI |
10.14288/1.0379596
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URI | |
Affiliation | |
Citation |
Galaxies 6 (2): 57 (2018)
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Publisher DOI |
10.3390/galaxies6020057
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Peer Review Status |
Reviewed
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Scholarly Level |
Faculty
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Rights URI | |
Aggregated Source Repository |
DSpace
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Item Media
Item Citations and Data
Rights
CC BY 4.0