Theory HEP Seminar

Black hole hair and electromagnetic signatures of merging and collapsing compact objects

Maxim Lyutikov

Purdue

(i) The “no hair” theorem is not applicable to black holes formed from the collapse of rotating magnetized neutron stars. Presence of self-produced highly conducting plasma magnetosphere introduces a topological constraint of “frozen-in” open magnetic field lines. As a result, a (countable!) open magnetic flux is conserved on the BH during the collapse, decaying on long resistive time-scales.

(ii) A Schwarzschild black hole moving through a constant magnetic field generates electromagnetic jets and will slow down electromagnetically. Dissipation within these jets could be the dominant mechanism producing EM signal during the merger of supermassive BHs.