Blandford-Znajek process as Alfv\'enic superradiance
Abstract
The superradiant scattering of Alfv\'en waves (Alfv\'enic superradiance) in a forcefree magnetosphere is discussed to reveal the relationship between the Blandford-Znajek (BZ) process and superradiance. For simplicity, we consider a four-dimensional rotating black string spacetime of which each z=const slice is a Ba\~nados-Teitelboim-Zanelli solution as an analogy of the equatorial plane of the Kerr spacetime. Then, it is confirmed that the condition for Alfv\'enic superradiance coincides with that for the BZ process, and the wave amplification can be very large due to a resonant scattering for some parameter sets of the wave frequency and the angular velocity of the magnetic field line. Moreover, by analysis of the Poynting flux, we first show that the BZ process can be interpreted as the long wavelength limit of Alfv\'enic superradiance.