Magnetohydrodynamic Shocks in Nonequatorial Plasma Flows around a Black Hole

Abstract

We study magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) standing shocks in inflowing plasmas in a black hole magnetosphere. Fast and intermediate shock formation is explored in Schwarzschild and Kerr geometry to illustrate general relativistic effects. We find that non-equatorial standing MHD shocks are physically possible, creating a very hot plasma region close to the event horizon. Shocked downstream plasmas can be heated or magnetized depending on the values of various magnetic field-aligned parameters. Then we may expect high-energy thermal/nonthermal emissions from the shocked region. We present the properties of non-equatorial MHD shocks and discuss the shocked plasma region in the black hole magnetosphere. We also investigate the effects of the poloidal magnetic field and the black hole spin on the properties of shocks, and show that both effects can modify the distribution of the shock front and shock strength. We find for strong MHD shock formation that fast rotating magnetic fields are necessary. The physics of non-equatorial MHD shocks in the black hole magnetosphere could be very important when we are to construct the central engine model of various astrophysical phenomena.