A1 Refereed original research article in a scientific journal
Black hole lightning due to particle acceleration at sub-horizon scales
Authors: Aleksic J., Ansoldi S., Antonelli L. A., Antoranz P., Babic A., Bangale P., Barrio J. A., González J. Becerra, Bednarek W., Bernardini E., Biasuzzi B., Biland A., Blanch O., Bonnefoy S., Bonnoli G., Borracci F., Bretz T., Carmona E., Carosi A., Colin P., Colombo E., Contreras J. L., Cortina J., Covino S., Da Vela P., Dazzi F., De Angelis A., De Caneva G., De Lotto B., Wilhelmi E. de Oña, Mendez C. Delgado, Prester D. Dominis, Dorner D., Doro M., Einecke S., Eisenacher D., Elsaesser D., Fonseca M. V., Font L., Frantzen K., Fruck C., Galindo D., López R. J. García, Garczarczyk M., Terrats D. Garrido, Gaug M., Godinović N., Muñoz A. González, Gozzini S. R., Hadasch D., Hanabata Y., Hayashida M., Herrera J., Hildebrand D., Hose J., Hrupec D., Idec W., Kadenius V., Kellermann H., Kodani K., Konno Y., Krause J., Kubo H., Kushida J., La Barbera A., Lelas D., Lewandowska N., Lindfors E., Lombardi S., Longo F., López M., López-Coto R., López-Oramas A., Lorenz E., Lozano I., Makariev M., Mallot K., Maneva G., Mankuzhiyil N., Mannheim K., Maraschi L., Marcote B., Mariotti M., Martínez M., Mazin D., Menzel U., Miranda J. M., Mirzoyan R., Moralejo A., Munar-Adrover P., Nakajima D., Niedzwiecki A., Nilsson K., Nishijima K., Noda K., Orito R., Overkemping A., Paiano S., Palatiello M., Paneque D., Paoletti R., Paredes J. M., Paredes-Fortuny X., Persic M., Poutanen J., Moroni P. G. Prada, Prandini E., Puljak I., Reinthal R., Rhode W., Ribó M., Rico J., Garcia J. Rodriguez, Rügamer S., Saito T., Saito K., Satalecka K., Scalzotto V., Scapin V., Schultz C., Schweizer T., Shore S. N., Sillanpää A., Sitarek J., Snidaric I., Sobczynska D., Spanier F., Stamatescu V., Stamerra A., Steinbring T., Storz J., Strzys M., Takalo L., Takami H., Tavecchio F., Temnikov P., Terzić T., Tescaro D., Teshima M., Thaele J., Tibolla O., Torres D. F., Toyama T., Treves A., Uellenbeck M., Vogler P., Zanin R., Kadler M., Schulz R., Ros E., Bach U., Krauß F., Wilms J.
Publisher: AAAS
Publication year: 2014
Journal: Science
Journal acronym: Science
Volume: 346
Issue: 6213
First page : 1080
Last page: 1084
Number of pages: 5
ISSN: 0036-8075
eISSN: 1095-9203
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1256183
Web address : http://www.sciencemag.org/content/346/6213/1080
Supermassive black holes with masses of millions to billions of solar masses are commonly found in the centers of galaxies. Astronomers seek to image jet formation using radio interferometry, but still suffer from insufficient angular resolution. An alternative method to resolve small structures is to measure the time variability of their emission. Here, we report on gamma-ray observations of the radio galaxy IC 310 obtained with the MAGIC telescopes revealing variability with doubling time scales faster than 4.8 min. Causality constrains the size of the emission region to be smaller than 20\% of the gravitational radius of its central black hole. We suggest that the emission is associated with pulsar-like particle acceleration by the electric field across a magnetospheric gap at the base of the radio jet.
