Kinetic Simulations of Radiative Magnetic Reconnection in the Coronae of Accreting Black Holes

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal Vol. 899; no. 1; pp. 52 - 67
• Main Authors: Sironi, Lorenzo, Beloborodov, Andrei M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia The American Astronomical Society 01.08.2020; IOP Publishing
• Subjects: Accretion; Accretion disks; Activation; ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; Astrophysical black holes; Astrophysics; Black holes; Emission; Energy dissipation; Energy distribution; First principles; Hard X-rays; Magnetic reconnection; Particle in cell technique; Particle size distribution; Plasmas (physics); Relativistic disks; Relativistic jets; Simulation; Solar magnetic reconnection; Stellar accretion disks; Stress concentration; X-ray emissions; X-rays

We perform 2D and 3D particle-in-cell simulations of reconnection in magnetically dominated e plasmas subject to strong Compton cooling. Magnetic reconnection under such conditions can operate in accretion disk coronae around black holes, which produce hard X-rays through Comptonization. Our simulat...