arXiv subjects

Kenji Toma

Publications and source records attributed to Kenji Toma.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2022

Interaction of a Relativistic Magnetized Collisionless Shock with a Dense Clump

The interactions between a relativistic magnetized collisionless shock and dense clumps have been expected to play a crucial role on the magnetic field amplification and cosmic-ray acceleration. We investigate this process by two-dimensional Particle-In-Cell (PIC) simulations for the first time, where the clump size is much larger than the gyroradius of downstream particles. We also perform relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations for the same condition to see the kinetic effects. We find that particles escape from the shocked clump along magnetic field lines in the PIC simulations, so that the vorticity is lower than that in the MHD simulations. Moreover, in both the PIC and MHD simulations, the shocked clump quickly decelerates because of relativistic effects. Owing to the escape and the deceleration, the shocked clump cannot amplify the downstream magnetic field in relativistic collisionless shocks. This large-scale PIC simulation opens a new window to understand large-scale behaviors in collisionless plasma systems.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2022

High-energy Gamma-rays from Magnetically Arrested Disks in Nearby Radio Galaxies

The origins of the GeV gamma-rays from nearby radio galaxies are unknown. Hadronic emission from magnetically arrested disks (MADs) around central black holes (BHs) is proposed as a possible scenario. Particles are accelerated in the MAD by magnetic reconnection and stochastic turbulence acceleration. We pick out the fifteen brightest radio galaxies in the GeV band from the Fermi 4LAC-DR2 catalog and apply the MAD model. We find that we can explain the data in the GeV bands by the MAD model if the accretion rate is lower than 0.1% of the Eddington rate. For a higher accretion rate, GeV gamma-rays are absorbed by two-photon interaction due to copious low-energy photons. If we assume another proposed prescription of the electron heating rate by magnetic reconnection, the MAD model fails to reproduce the GeV data for the majority of our sample. This indicates that the electron heating rate is crucial. We also apply the MAD model to Sgr A* and find that GeV gamma-rays observed at the Galactic center do not come from the MAD of Sgr A*. We estimate the cosmic ray intensity from Sgr A*, but it is too low to explain the high-energy cosmic ray intensity on Earth.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Polarimetric studies of GRBs, AGN jets, and axion dark matter

Relativistic jets are collimated outflows with speeds close to light speed, which are associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and so on. This article mainly overviews recent developments of polarimetric studies of GRBs and their afterglows in the gamma-ray and optical wavebands as well as the first detections of their radio polarization. Polarimetric observations and theoretical modelings can address the emission mechanism, magnetic field structure, and energetics of GRB jets and related collisionless plasma physics. Some of the discussed key physics are common with AGN jets. Furthermore, we mention that polarimetry of AGN jets and protoplanetary disks may be a novel approach to search for ultra-light axion dark matter.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

The response of black hole spark gaps to external changes: A production mechanism of rapid TeV flares?

We study the response of a starved Kerr black hole magnetosphere to abrupt changes in the intensity of disk emission and in the global magnetospheric current, by means of 1D general relativistic particle-in-cell simulations. Such changes likely arise from the intermittency of the accretion process. We find that in cases where the pair production opacity contributed by the soft disk photons is modest, as in, e.g., M87, such changes can give rise to delayed, strong TeV flares, dominated by curvature emission of particles accelerated in the gap. The flare rise time, and the delay between the external variation and the onset of the flare emitted from the outer gap boundary, are of the order of the light crossing time of the gap. The rapid, large amplitude TeV flares observed in M87 and, perhaps, other AGNs may be produced by such a mechanism.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Backreaction of Mass and Angular Momentum Accretion on Black Holes: General Formulation of the Metric Perturbations and Application to the Blandford-Znajek Process

We study the metric backreaction of mass and angular momentum accretion on black holes. We first develop the formalism of monopole and dipole linear gravitational perturbations around the Schwarzschild black holes in the Eddington-Finkelstein coordinates against the generic time-dependent matters. We derive the relation between the time dependence of the mass and angular momentum of the black hole and the energy-momentum tensors of accreting matters. As a concrete example, we apply our formalism to the Blandford-Znajek process around the slowly rotating black holes. We find that the time dependence of the monopole and dipole perturbations can be interpreted as the slowly rotating Kerr metric with time-dependent mass and spin parameters, which are determined from the energy and angular momentum extraction rates of the Blandford-Znajek process. We also show that the Komar angular momentum and the area of the apparent horizon are decreasing and increasing in time, respectively, while they are consistent with the Blandford-Znajek argument of energy extraction in term of black hole mechanics if we regard the time-dependent mass parameter as the energy of the black hole.

gr-qc↗

arXiv2021

Multi-Wave band Synchrotron Polarization of Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglows

Multi-wave band synchrotron linear polarization of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows is studied under the assumption of an anisotropic turbulent magnetic field with a coherence length of the plasma skin-depth scale in the downstream of forward shocks. We find that for typical GRBs, in comparison to the optical polarization, the degree of radio polarization shows a similar temporal evolution but a significantly smaller peak value. This results from differences in observed intensity image shapes between the radio and optical bands. We also show that the degree of the polarization spectrum undergoes a gradual variation from the low- to the high-polarization regime above the intensity of the spectral peak frequency, and that the difference in polarization angles in the two regimes is zero or 90 degrees. Thus, simultaneous multi-wave band polarimetric observations of GRB afterglows would be a new determinative test of the plasma-scale magnetic field model. We also discuss theoretical implications from the recent detection of radio linear polarization in GRB 171205A with ALMA and other models of magnetic field configuration.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Matter density distribution of general relativistic highly magnetized jets driven by black holes

High-resolution very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) radio observations have resolved the detailed emission structures of active galactic nucleus jets. General relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations have improved the understanding of jet production physics, although theoretical studies still have difficulties in constraining the origin and distribution of jetted matter. We construct a new steady, axisymmetric GRMHD jet model to obtain approximate solutions of black hole (BH) magnetospheres, and examine the matter density distribution of jets. By assuming fixed poloidal magnetic field shapes that mimic force-free analytic solutions and GRMHD simulation results and assuming constant poloidal velocity at the separation surface, which divides the inflow and outflow, we numerically solve the force-balance between the field lines at the separation surface and analytically solve the distributions of matter velocity and density along the field lines. We find that the densities at the separation surface in our parabolic field models roughly follow $\propto r_{ss}^{-2}$ in the far zone from the BH, where $r_{ss}$ is the radius of the separation surface. When the BH spin is larger or the velocity at the separation surface is smaller, the density at the separation surface becomes concentrated more near the jet edge. Our semi-analytic model, combined with radiative transfer calculations, may help interpret the high-resolution VLBI observations and understand the origin of jetted matter.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2021

Hadronic High-energy Emission from Magnetically Arrested Disks in Radio Galaxies

We propose a novel interpretation that gamma-rays from nearby radio galaxies are hadronic emission from magnetically arrested disks (MADs) around central black holes (BHs). The magnetic energy in MADs is higher than the thermal energy of the accreting plasma, where the magnetic reconnection or turbulence may efficiently accelerate non-thermal protons. They emit gamma-rays via hadronic processes, which can account for the observed gamma-rays for M87 and NGC 315. Non-thermal electrons are also accelerated with protons and produce MeV gamma-rays, which is useful to test our model by proposed MeV satellites. The hadronic emission from the MADs may significantly contribute to the GeV gamma-ray background and produce the multi-PeV neutrino background detectable by IceCube-Gen2. In addition, gamma-rays from MADs provide electron-positron pairs through two-photon pair production at the BH magnetosphere. These pairs can screen the vacuum gap, which affects high-energy emission and jet-launching mechanisms in radio galaxies.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

A Jet-Bases Emission Model of the EHT 2017 Image of M87*

We carry out general relativistic ray-tracing radiative-transfer calculations to study whether a localized emission from $e^{\pm}$ plasma rings created at the stagnation surface in the jet funnel, to which we refer as stagnation rings, can explain the ring image of M87 observed by Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) 2017. The resultant images consist of the direct image of the stagnation rings and the ring images formed via the strong deflection by the black-hole (BH) gravity, to which we refer as "quasi photon-ring". For the model with the BH spin $a_* = 0.99$, the direct image of the counter-jet and quasi photon-ring are almost coincident to the photon ring with diameter $\sim 40 μ{\rm as}$, while the approaching jet shows the small ring-image inside them. The synthetic observation image assuming the EHT 2017 array is consistent with that observed in M87, because the array is a bit sparse to detect the inner ring image. This indicates that the ring image in M87 might contain the important feature of the jet bases in addition to the photon ring. We find that forthcoming EHT observations can resolve the stagnation-ring image and may enable us to explore the plasma-injection mechanism into the jet funnel.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Probing Particle Acceleration through Broadband Early Afterglow Emission of MAGIC Gamma-Ray Burst GRB 190114C

Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov Telescopes (MAGIC) detected the gamma-ray afterglow of GRB 190114C, which can constrain microscopic parameters of the shock-heated plasma emitting non-thermal emission. Focusing on the early afterglow of this event, we numerically simulate the spectrum and multi-wavelength light curves with constant and wind-like circumstellar medium using a time-dependent code. Our results show that the electron acceleration timescale at the highest energies is likely shorter than 20 times the gyroperiod to reproduce the GeV gamma-ray flux and its spectral index reported by {\it Fermi}. This gives an interesting constraint on the acceleration efficiency for Weibel-mediated shocks. We also constrain the number fraction of non-thermal electrons $f_{\rm e}$, and the temperature of the thermal electrons. The early optical emission can be explained by the thermal synchrotron emission with $f_{\rm e} \lesssim 0.01$. On the other hand, the X-ray light curves restrict efficient energy transfer from protons to the thermal electrons, and $f_{\rm e}\sim1$ is required if the energy fraction of the thermal electrons is larger than $\sim10$\%. The parameter constraints obtained in this work give important clues to probing plasma physics with relativistic shocks.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

Comprehensive analysis of magnetospheric gaps around Kerr black holes using 1D GRPIC simulations

Spark gaps are likely the source of plasma in active black hole (BH) magnetospheres. In this paper, we present results of 1D general-relativistic particle-in-cell simulations of a starved BH magnetosphere with a realistic treatment of inverse Compton scattering and pair production, for a broad range of conditions, run times longer than in previous studies, and different setups. We find that following the initial discharge, the system undergoes gradual evolution over prolonged time until either, restoring the vacuum state or reaching a state of quasi-periodic oscillations, depending on the spectral shape and luminosity of the ambient radiation field. The oscillations occur near the null charge surface in cases where the global magnetospheric current is in the direction defined by the product of the asymptotic Goldreich-Julian charge density and the radial velocity, while they occur near the boundary of the simulation box when it is the opposite direction (return current). Their amplitude and the resultant luminosity of TeV photons emitted from the gap depend sensitively on the conditions; for the cases studied here the ratio of TeV luminosity to the Blandford-Znajek power ranges from $10^{-5}$ to $10^{-2}$, suggesting that strong flares may be generated by moderate changes in disk emission. We also examined the dependence of the solution on the initial number of particles per cell (PPC) and found convergence for PPC of about 50 for the cases examined. At lower PPC values the pair multiplicity is found to be artificially high, affecting the solution considerably.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2020

A Thermodynamic Approach towards the Question "What is Cellular Life?"

The question "What is life?" has been asked and studied by the researchers of various fields. Nevertheless, no global theory which unified various aspects of life has been proposed so far. Considering that the physical principle for the theory of birth should be the one known for the unanimated world, and that the life processes are irreversibly selective, we showed by a deductive inference that the maximum entropy production principle plays an essential role for the birth and the evolution of life in a fertile environment. In order to explain the survival strategy of life in a barren period of environment, we also proposed that life had simultaneously developed a reversible on and off switching mechanism of the chemical reactions by the dynamics of equilibrium thermodynamics. Thus, the birth and evolution of life have been achieved by the cooperation between the driving force due to the non-equilibrium thermodynamics and the protective force due to the equilibrium thermodynamics in the alternating environmental conditions.

physics.bio-ph↗

arXiv2020

Efficient acceleration of cylindrical jets: effects of radiative cooling and tangled magnetic field

Diverging supersonic flows are accelerating, as in the case of a de Laval nozzle, and the same concept has been applied for acceleration of magnetohydrodynamic flows in the universe. Here, we study the dynamics of "non-diverging" cylindrical supersonic flows and show that they can be accelerated by effects of radiative cooling and the tangled magnetic field. In addition to radiative cooling of the jet materials (cooling effect), conversion of the ordered magnetic field into the turbulent one (conversion effect) and dissipation of the turbulent magnetic field (dissipation effect) are formulated according to our study on pulsar wind nebulae. Although each of the cooling and conversion effects is an ineffective acceleration process, the terminal velocity of magnetized cylindrical jets attains about half of the maximum possible value when the cooling, conversion and dissipation effects work simultaneously. The radiation efficiency is also about half of the total luminosity of the jet in the case of maximal acceleration. The concept for flow acceleration by the non-ideal MHD effects may be useful for studying relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei, in which the region near the jet axis is expected to be cylindrical and kink unstable.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2019

Hunting Axion Dark Matter with Protoplanetary Disk Polarimetry

We find that the polarimetric observations of protoplanetary disks are useful to search for ultra-light axion dark matter. Axion dark matter predicts the rotation of the linear polarization plane of propagating light, and protoplanetary disks are ideal targets to observe it. We show that a recent observation puts the tightest constraint on the axion-photon coupling constant for axion mass $m\lesssim10^{-21}$eV.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

A Mechanism for Triple-Ridge Emission Structure of AGN Jets

Recent radio VLBI observations of the relativistic jet in M87 radio galaxy have shown a triple-ridge structure that consists of the conventional limb-brightened feature and a central narrow ridge. Motivated by these observations, we examine a steady axisymmetric force-free model of a jet driven by the central black hole (BH) with its electromagnetic structure being consistent with general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations, and find that it can produce triple-ridge images even if we assume a simple Gaussian distribution of emitting electrons at the base of the jet. We show that the fluid velocity field associated with the electromagnetic field produces the central ridge component due to the relativistic beaming effect, while the limb-brightened feature arises due to strong magnetic field around the jet edge which also induces the electrons to be dense there. We also show that the computed image strongly depends on the electromagnetic field structure, viewing angle, and parameters related to the electrons' spatial distribution at the jet base. This study will help constraining the non-thermal electron injection mechanism of BH jets and be complementary to theoretical analyses of the upcoming data of Event Horizon Telescope.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

Parabolic Jets from the Spinning Black Hole in M87

The M87 jet is extensively examined by utilizing general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations as well as the steady axisymmetric force-free electrodynamic (FFE) solution. Quasi-steady funnel jets are obtained in GRMHD simulations up to the scale of $\sim 100$ gravitational radius ($r_{\rm g}$) for various black hole (BH) spins. As is known, the funnel edge is approximately determined by the following equipartitions; i) the magnetic and rest-mass energy densities and ii) the gas and magnetic pressures. Our numerical results give an additional factor that they follow the outermost parabolic streamline of the FFE solution, which is anchored to the event horizon on the equatorial plane. We also identify the matter dominated, non-relativistic corona/wind play a dynamical role in shaping the funnel jet into the parabolic geometry. We confirm a quantitative overlap between the outermost parabolic streamline of the FFE jet and the edge of jet sheath in VLBI observations at $\sim 10^{1}$-$10^{5} \, r_{\rm g}$, suggesting that the M87 jet is likely powered by the spinning BH. Our GRMHD simulations also indicate a lateral stratification of the bulk acceleration (i.e., the spine-sheath structure) as well as an emergence of knotty superluminal features. The spin characterizes the location of the jet stagnation surface inside the funnel. We suggest that the limb-brightened feature could be associated with the nature of the BH-driven jet, if the Doppler beaming is a dominant factor. Our findings can be examined with (sub-)mm VLBI observations, giving a clue for the origin of the M87 jet.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

Fast-spinning black holes inferred from symmetrically limb-brightened radio jets

This paper theoretically investigates the relations between the structure of relativistic jets and produced synchrotron images, by using a steady axisymmetric force-free jet model. We especially focus on the limb-brightened jets that are largely symmetric to the jet axes and observed in some active galactic nuclei such as M87, Mrk~501, Cyg~A, and 3C84. We find that symmetrically limb-brightened images can be produced when magnetic field lines of the jet penetrate a fast-spinning black hole as motivated by the Blandford-Znajek mechanism. On the other hand, jets with magnetic field lines that pass through a slowly spinning black hole or the Keplerian accretion disk produce highly asymmetric radio images. In addition, the edge of a counter jet tends to be luminous in the accretion-disk model even for rather small viewing angles, which may be problematic for some observed jets. We also suggest that the site of particle accelerations in relativistic jets can be constrained by fitting the radio images to observations. This kind of study focusing on the jet images far away from the central engine is complimentary to those concentrating directly on the innermost region with upcoming data of the Event Horizon Telescope.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2018

Confinement of the Crab Nebula with tangled magnetic field by its supernova remnant

A pulsar wind is a relativistic outflow dominated by Poynting energy at its base. Based on the standard ideal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) model of pulsar wind nebulae (PWNe) with the ordered magnetic field, the observed slow expansion $v_{\rm PWN} \ll c$ requires the wind to be dominated by kinetic energy at the upstream of its termination shock, which conflicts with the pulsar wind theory ($σ$-problem). In this paper, we extend the standard model of PWNe by phenomenologically taking into account conversion of the ordered to turbulent magnetic field and dissipation of the turbulent magnetic field. Disordering of the magnetic structure is inferred from the recent three-dimensional relativistic ideal MHD simulations, while magnetic dissipation is a non-ideal MHD effect requiring a finite resistivity. We apply this model to the Crab Nebula and find that the conversion effect is important for the flow deceleration, while the dissipation effect is not. Even for Poynting-dominated pulsar wind, we obtain the Crab Nebula's $v_{\rm PWN}$ by adopting a finite conversion time-scale of $\sim 0.3$ yr. Magnetic dissipation primarily affects the synchrotron radiation properties. Any values of the pulsar wind magnetization $σ_{\rm w}$ are allowed within the present model of the PWN dynamics alone, and even a small termination shock radius of $\ll 0.1$ pc reproduces the observed dynamical features of the Crab Nebula. In order to establish a high-$σ_{\rm w}$ model of PWNe, it is important to extend the present model by taking into account the broadband spectrum and its spacial profiles.

astro-ph.HE↗