Electron-positron outflow from black holes and the formation of winds

Abstract

The collapse of young massive stars or the coalescence of a black hole-neutron star binary is expected to give rise to a black hole-torus system. When the torus is strongly magnetized, the black hole produces electron-positron outflow along open magnetic field-lines. Through curvature radiation in gaps, this outflow rapidly develops into a $e^\pm\gamma$-wind, which is ultra-relativistic and of low comoving density, proposed here as a possible input to GRB fireball models.