Extreme luminosities in ejecta produced by intermittent outflows around rotating black holes

Abstract

Extreme sources in the Transient Universe show evidence of relativistic outflows from intermittent inner engines, such as cosmological gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). They probably derive from rotating back holes interacting with surrounding matter. We show that these interactions are enhanced inversely proportional to the duty cycle in advection of magnetic flux, as may apply at high accretion rates. We demonstrate the morphology and ballistic propagation of relativistic ejecta from burst outflows by numerical simulations in relativistic magnetohydrodynamics. Applied to stellar mass black holes in core-collapse of massive stars, it provides a robust explosion mechanism as a function of total energy output. At breakout, these ejecta may produce a low-luminosity GRB. A long GRB may ensue from an additional ultrarelativistic baryon-poor inner jet from a sufficiently long-lived intermittent inner engine. The simulations demonstrate a complex geometry in mergers of successive ejecta, whose mixing and shocks provide a pathway to broad-band high-energy emission from magnetic reconnection and shocks.