Magnetic reconnection, and particle acceleration and propagation around black holes

Abstract

Particle acceleration by magnetic reconnection is now recognized as an important process in magnetically dominated regions of galactic and extragalactic sources, like pulsars and black holes. This process helps to solve current puzzles specially related to the origin of very high energy flare emission in these sources. Recent analytical studies and multidimensional numerical (special and general) relativistic magnetohydrodynamical simulations with the injection of test particles, performed by our group, have helped in the understanding of this process in relativistic jets and coronal regions of black holes and, in particular, the associated very high energy (VHE) and neutrino emission resulting from the accelerated particles by reconnection. This PhD Project aims to extend on these studies, exploring the mechanisms that drive magnetic reconnection, and the production of relativistic particles around black hole sources, combining multidimensional GRMHD simulations with test particle simulations, as described in Kadowaki et al. 2018; Rodriguez-Ramirez et al. 2019; de Gouveia Dal Pino et al. 2018, and apply these methods to different sources. Furthermore, considering our group's participation in the Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) Project and the construction of the CTA Precursor - the ASTRI MINI-ARRAY, this project is also aimed at direct applications of these studies to allow an appropriate description and interpretation of the observed gamma-ray emission in these sources. In particular, these studies will help to constrain the location of the acceleration regions in target sources of CTA and the Mini-Array (CTA Colllaboration 2019; ASTRI Collaboration 2020). (AU)