Electron-positron processes and spectral evolution in black hole accretion disk dynamo models for AGN sources of the cosmic X-ray and. gamma. ray backgrounds

Conference · Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 1983 · AIP Conf. Proc.; (United States)

OSTI ID:6049415

Leiter, D

This work discusses a black hole accretion disk dynamo model for Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) sources of the cosmic X-ray and ..gamma.. ray backgrounds which involves both thermal and nonthermal accretion disk processes around greater than or equal to 10/sup 8/M/sub sun/ Kerr black holes. Before black hole spin-up to the Kerr metric state, the large value of the compactness parameter L(luminosity)/r(size of emitting region) > 10/sup 30/erg/cm-sec associated with the L/L/sub Edd/ less than or equal to l luminosity ratio in Precursor Active Galaxies (PAG) suppresses all nonthermal emission mechanisms. In this PAG state the resulting emission is predominantly thermal and is due to Comptonization of soft photons by an electron-positron plasma, generated within the hot accretion disk region by ..gamma.. + ..gamma.. reversible e+/- processes in the transrelativistic regime. While the underlying plasma in the PAG accretion disk hot inner region may be optically thin initially, the overall effect of the copious ..gamma.. + ..gamma.. reversible e+/- generated electron-positron plasma is to push the overall optical depth to tau greater than or equal to 1. This has two main effects: a) it causes the resulting Comptonized spectrum of X-radiation from PAG to be associated with a flat spectral index comparable to that of the residual Cosmic X-ray Background (CXB), and b) the copious ..gamma.. + ..gamma.. reversible e+/- within the hot accretion disk region play the role of a phase transition thermostat, and act to maintain the temperature of the hot inner region at greater than or equal to 109/sup 0/K. 16 references.

• Research Organization: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD
• OSTI ID: 6049415
• Report Number(s): CONF-830136-
• Journal Information: AIP Conf. Proc.; (United States), Vol. 101; Conference: Workshop on positron-electron pairs in astrophysics, Greenbelt, MD, USA, 6 Jan 1983
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
GALAXY NUCLEI
COSMIC GAMMA SOURCES
COSMIC X-RAY SOURCES
MATHEMATICAL MODELS
ACCRETION DISKS
BLACK HOLES
ELECTRON PAIRS
GALACTIC EVOLUTION
KERR METRIC
LUMINOSITY
PLASMA
COSMIC RAY SOURCES
METRICS
OPTICAL PROPERTIES
PHYSICAL PROPERTIES
640103* - Astrophysics & Cosmology- Quasi-Stellar
Radio
& X-Ray Sources- (-1987)