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Full-Text Articles in Astrophysics and Astronomy
The Central, Compact Source In The Cygnus A Galaxy, Menas Kafatos
The Central, Compact Source In The Cygnus A Galaxy, Menas Kafatos
Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research
Single, optically thin, component models as well as double, optically thick at low frequencies, component models have been examined in trying to explain the central source in the nucleus of Cygnus A. In the course of exploring those models, it is found that this compact radio source may be quite similar to other compact and variable sources in Seyfert galaxies and quasars. Double component models generally do better because they fit the X-rays, and there is a good chance that the X-rays arise in the central source; these models can naturally explain variability which may already have been detected in …
Penrose Pair Production In Massive, Extreme Kerr Black Holes, D. Leiter, Menas Kafatos
Penrose Pair Production In Massive, Extreme Kerr Black Holes, D. Leiter, Menas Kafatos
Mathematics, Physics, and Computer Science Faculty Articles and Research
We show that in the case of very massive (M > 108 M0 ) Kerr black holes with extreme ranges of angular momentum 1 ≥ a/M > 0.998, the possibility of photon-induced Penrose pair production (PPP) in the ergosphere is very plausible. The pairs that escape the ergosphere are very high energy and on the order of the GeV rest mass of the Penrose accreted protons which participate in the photon-induced pair production process. Application of this model to the case of quasistellar objects (QSOs) is shown to lead to reasonable predictions about their masses, lifetimes, and luminosities. The physical mechanism is …