In "Reply to Mike, the three liner", Leo states he believes that galactic ejections are newly formed black holes. Arp says they are new matter that we interpret as quasars. I would like to hear comments from others on this forum about their opinions on: a) what is ejected from galaxies, b) what causes these ejections, c) what are the cosmological implications. Ted Rusk, David Russell, Nick White, Lyndon Ashmore, etc. - what do you guys think?
Mike Petersen
Thanks for the question Mike. I was stuck in a traffic jam so I decided to put the time to good use and ponder your question.
Leo may well be correct but I don’t fancy ‘newly formed black holes’. For one thing, these should take in matter not give it out. Secondly, black holes are spherically symmetrical and these ejections are along a line.
I don’t fancy Arp’s idea of ‘new matter’ because you then have to explain where this new matter is coming from. You are solving one problem by introducing another.
The idea that I came up with is ‘binary black holes’! There is supposed to be one black hole at the centre of every galaxy so why can’t some galaxies have two black holes at their centre, revolving around each other like binary stars?
Usually, distant matter falling into these binary black holes would be attracted in their general direction and, when they came close, would be devoured by whichever black hole was nearest at that time.
However, matter originally lying on the axis of rotation of the binary pair would follow a different path. This matter would accelerate towards the pair but when it reached the binary Black Holes it would pass straight through and be ejected from the other side. The gravitational fields of the pair cancel in the middle of the space between them (we have a neutral point). Could the ejected mass be matter that had originally fallen in from the other side? But then, would you have seen this matter falling in as well? Probably! This bit needs more thought.
I then pondered, ‘what would happen to a particle lying on the axis of rotation of the binary Black Holes?” The answer is that it would oscillate. It would be attracted to the binary pair, and accelerate. In the middle of the space between the binary pair, there would be no resultant gravitation force and so the particles momentum would carry it through. On emerging from the other side, there would then be a resultant gravitational force retarding it. The particle would then keep oscillating with the binary pair at the centre of it's oscillation. It would be a bit like a mass betwen two stretched springs. It performs simple harmonic Motion (but with the black holes, the magnitude of the force is not proportional to the displacent).
Having just fallen through a pair of black holes, you would expect the particles velocity to be relativistic when it emerges!
But here is the good part, I think! (hope?)
The maximum force and hence acceleration is not at the centre of the oscillation, it is zero here because the fields cancel. Neither is the force and acceleration of the particle a maximum at the extremes of the oscillation. Gravity follows an inverse square law and reduces with distance so they approach zero here. The force and acceleration of the particle are greatest symmetrically, at either side of the Binary pair i.e. at either side of the galaxy. Now if our particle is an electron, this is where it will radiate the most energy (brehmstrahlung). Isn’t this where Arp (and Leo if you read Arps book!) says quasars are – symmetrically at either side of a Seyfert galaxy? Better still, since these particles are trapped on the field lines along the axis of rotation of the binary pair, the effect will become greater and greater as more particles fall in and are trapped. So we should have intense radio sources symmetrically at either side of the galaxy.
Doing some research I see that NGC 6240 is known to contain a binary pair of black holes. I believe NGC 6240 is also a Seyfert galaxy. Does it have a quasar at either side? I don’t know, does anyone else?
I need to play around some more with this idea so any thoughts, for or against, would be well received.
Lyndon
© Copyright February 2004 Lyndon Ashmore. All rights reserved.
