Contribution to a conference proceedings/Journal Article

PUBDB-2026-01100

http://join2-wiki.gsi.de/foswiki/pub/Main/Artwork/join2_logo100x88.png Photo-Hadronic Pair Creation in Magnetospheric Current Sheets of Accreting Black Holes

Karavola, D. (Corresponding author)Extern* ; Petropoulou, M. (Corresponding author) ; Fiorillo, D. F. G.Extern*DESY* ; Comisso, L. ; Sironi, L.

2025
IOP Publ. Bristol

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Please use a persistent id in citations: doi:10.1088/1742-6596/3053/1/012022  doi:10.3204/PUBDB-2026-01100

Abstract: A ubiquitous feature of accreting black hole systems is their hard X-ray emission which is thought to be produced through Comptonization of soft photons by pairs in the vicinity of the black hole. The origin and composition of this hot plasma source, known as the corona, is a matter open for debate. In this contribution we investigate the role of relativistic protons accelerated in black-hole magnetospheric current sheets in the pair enrichment of AGN coronae. We find cases where photohadronic interactions between protons and photons in the magnetospheric region can produce enough secondary pairs to create coronae with Thomson optical depths, $\tau_T \sim 0.10$ – $10$. More importantly we find a significant dependence of the secondary pair density on the Eddington ratio, defined here as the ratio of the intrinsic X-ray luminosity to the Eddington luminosity of the source. We also present the predicted high-energy neutrino spectrum and discuss our results in light of the recent IceCube observations of TeV neutrinos from NGC 1068.

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Contributing Institute(s):

1. Theoretische Astroteilchenphysik (Z_THAT)

Research Program(s):

1. 613 - Matter and Radiation from the Universe (POF4-613) (POF4-613)

Experiment(s):

1. No specific instrument

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Database coverage:
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