A Novel Mechanism for the Formation of Electron-Positron Outflow from Hot Accretion Disks
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Abstract
A mechanism is proposed for the formation of relativistic outflows in active galactic nuclei and Galactic black hole binaries, i.e., the ejection of electron-positron pairs produced in two-temperature accretion disks in those objects. We solve the pair-momentum equation in the one-zone approximation, in which we assume that the electron-positron component can escape independently of the electron-proton component that forms a hydrostatic atmosphere. The results show that, in the inner regions of the disks, when the mass accretion rate becomes larger than about a tenth of the Eddington rate, most of the viscously dissipated energy is converted into the thermal and kinetic energy of the ejected electron-positron pairs. The produced pairs are accelerated in the vertical direction by their own gas pressure rather than by the radiative force. This mechanism is thus successful in extracting accretion power so as to form powerful electron-positron outflows, as suggested by recent observations of active galactic nuclei and Galactic objects.
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