Rings of black holes

Opava physicists have newly focused on theoretical research on the influence of matter in the vicinity of black holes and on the possible radiation produced by this interaction. Their work looks at the matter flowing from the outer ring to the inner ring surrounding supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei when they previously interacted with other matter. The magnetic field surrounding the black hole plays a key role in the interaction of the matter of the two "fat rings" (technically torus). As is well known, black holes are usually surrounded by disks of matter that partially fall into the black hole and partially are held in its strong and unstable gravitational field. As matter enters the vicinity of black holes, it does not automatically become part of the disk, but forms a kind of outer ring, according to the new study. This then behaves differently depending on how dense or sparse it is, or whether it moves in the same direction as the black hole's rotation or in the opposite direction.

What will happen to the matter near the black hole disk? In the model simulations, we look at a slice of a disk consisting of two interacting rings of cloth (like slicing a doughnut and looking at the slice from the side), with a black hole to the left of each frame near the number 0. Blue indicates movement in one direction, red in the opposite direction. If the disk and ring of cloth move in the same direction, the cloth from the ring gradually penetrates the disk of the black hole. But if it is rotating in the opposite direction, the disk substance "envelops" and its radiation can "shoot" above or below the rotation of the black hole disk into space.

How will the study help humanity?

"We believe that the matter in the rings interacting with the black hole disks may be the source of the strong radiation that is partially released in the direction above or below the disk. In such a case, a very strong "stellar wind" may be released, containing in particular the charged particles from which humanity should protect itself. Protection from this radiation is not problematic, but it must be possible to predict these phenomena. This is where our work in collaboration with the ATHENA mission could be beneficial to humanity," says Prof. Zdenek Stuchlik, Director of the Institute of Physics in Opava. From this point of view, the work is also beneficial because these models can be applied to extreme events on the Sun and their verification can lead to the protection of humanity from the infamous large-scale blackouts during strong solar flares.

ATHENA: X-ray hunter

The ATHENA space telescope is one of the European Space Agency´s projects and Czech scientists and engineers are also involved in its development.The Telescope will be launched someitme in 2035 to the L2 libration point, which is located at a distance of 1.5 milion km from Earth and should observe it for about 4 years. Its main mission is to observe and map hot gases in space and to observe strong sources of X-rays, especially around supermassive black holes. A particularly interesting chalenge for scientists will be to obtain information about how are black holes formed, how they grow and how matter behaves in the extreme conditions around black holes at ancient times in the history of the Universe.

Original reserach article.

Contact details and additional information:

prof. RNDr. Zdenek Stuchlik, CSc.

RNDr. Martin Kolos, Ph.D.

Mgr. Petr Horalek

doc. RNDr. Gabriel Török, Ph.D.

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