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Issue A&A
Volume 437, Number 3, July III 2005
Page(s) L39 - L42
Section Letters
DOI http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361:200500137



A&A 437, L39-L42 (2005)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:200500137

Letter

Tidal acceleration of ultrarelativistic particles

C. Chicone1 and B. Mashhoon2

1  Department of Mathematics, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA
2  Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Missouri-Columbia, Columbia, Missouri 65211, USA
    e-mail: MashhoonB@missouri.edu

(Received 29 March 2005 / Accepted 27 May 2005)

Abstract
We investigate the motion of free relativistic particles relative to the ambient medium around a gravitationally collapsed system. If the relative speed exceeds a critical value given by $c/\!\sqrt{2}$, the gravitational tidal effects exhibit novel features that are contrary to Newtonian expectations. In particular, ultrarelativistic jet clumps moving freely outward along the rotation axis strongly decelerate with respect to the ambient medium, while ultrarelativistic particles strongly accelerate in directions normal to the jet axis. The implications of these direct consequences of general relativity for jets in microquasars and the origin of the high-energy cosmic rays are briefly mentioned.


Key words: gravitation -- acceleration of particles -- black hole physics

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© ESO 2005


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