Can black hole superradiance be induced by galactic plasmas?

Highly spinning Kerr black holes with masses $M = 1 - 100\ M_{\odot}$ are subject to an efficient superradiant instability in the presence of bosons with masses $\mu \sim 10^{-10} - 10^{-12} eV$. We observe that this precisely matches the effective plasma-induced photon mass in diffuse galactic or i...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Conlon, J, Herdeiro, C
Format: Journal article
Published: Elsevier 2018
Description
Summary:Highly spinning Kerr black holes with masses $M = 1 - 100\ M_{\odot}$ are subject to an efficient superradiant instability in the presence of bosons with masses $\mu \sim 10^{-10} - 10^{-12} eV$. We observe that this precisely matches the effective plasma-induced photon mass in diffuse galactic or intracluster environments ($\omega_{pl} \sim 10^{-10} - 10^{-12}\ eV$). This suggests that bare Kerr black holes within galactic or intracluster environments, possibly even including the one produced in GW150914, are unstable to formation of a photon cloud that may contain a significant fraction of the mass of the original black hole. At maximal efficiency, the instability timescale for a massive vector is milliseconds, potentially leading to a transient rate of energy extraction from a black hole as large as $\sim 10^{55} erg \, s^{-1}$. We discuss mechanisms for releasing the energy in the photon cloud, including a possible connection to Fast Radio Bursts.