Boosting jet power in black hole spacetimes.

The extraction of rotational energy from a spinning black hole via the Blandford-Znajek mechanism has long been understood as an important component in models to explain energetic jets from compact astrophysical sources. Here we show more generally that the kinetic energy of the black hole, both rotational and translational, can be tapped, thereby producing even more luminous jets powered by the interaction of the black hole with its surrounding plasma. We study the resulting Poynting jet that arises from single boosted black holes and binary black hole systems.

Mergers of magnetized neutron stars with spinning black holes: disruption, accretion, and fallback.

We investigate the merger of a neutron star in orbit about a spinning black hole in full general relativity with a mass ratio of 5:1, allowing the star to have an initial magnetization of 10(12)  G. We present the resulting gravitational waveform and analyze the fallback accretion as the star is disrupted. We see no significant dynamical effects in the simulations or changes in the gravitational waveform resulting from the initial magnetization.

Magnetized neutron-star mergers and gravitational-wave signals.

We investigate the influence of magnetic fields upon the dynamics of, and resulting gravitational waves from, a binary neutron-star merger in full general relativity coupled to ideal magnetohydrodynamics. We consider two merger scenarios: one where the stars have aligned poloidal magnetic fields and one without. Both mergers result in a strongly differentially rotating object.