Magnetized Black Holes: Interplay between Charge and Rotation

Abstract

Already in the cornerstone works on astrophysical black holes published as early as in the 1970s, Ruffini and collaborators have revealed the potential importance of an intricate interaction between the effects of strong gravitational and electromagnetic fields. Close to the event horizon of the black hole, magnetic and electric lines of force become distorted and dragged even in a purely electro-vacuum system. Moreover, as the plasma effects inevitably arise in any astrophysically realistic environment, particles of different electric charges can separate from each other, become accelerated away from the black hole or accreted onto it, and contribute to the net electric charge of the black hole. From the point of principle, the case of super-strong magnetic fields is of particular interest, as the electromagnetic field can act as a source of gravity and influence spacetime geometry. In a brief celebratory note, we revisit aspects of rotation and charge within the framework of exact (asymptotically non-flat) solutions of mutually coupled Einstein–Maxwell equations that describe magnetized, rotating black holes.

Keywords

• black holes
• electromagnetic fields
• general relativity
• microquasars
• supermassive black holes