TGD View of the Engine Powering Jets from Active Galactic Nuclei

Abstract

The identification of the energy source (central engine) explaining the energy loss associated with the jets from active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is a long-standing problem of astrophysics. In the model of Blandford and Znajek (BZ model) for the central engine as a blackhole, the Penrose process would provide the energy. The energy would come basically from the blackhole mass. Empirical support for the BZ model emerges from the study of the supermassive blackhole associated with a galaxy known as Messier 87 (M87). The finding is that the magnetic field associated with the jet structure is tightly wound helical structure and so strong that it would control the dynamics of the matter from falling to blackhole except by occasional leakages. Electron-positron pairs created in the annihilation of photons would accelerate in the force-free helical electromagnetic field having also an electric component. The TGD based model involves several aspects of the new physics predicted by TDG. TGD leads to a model of galaxies and other astrophysical structures. Inflaton decay is replaced with the thickening of cosmic strings to flux tubes liberating as ordinary matter.