Ergosphere: Difference between revisions

Animation: A test particle approaching the ergosphere in the retrograde direction is forced to change its direction of motion. Coordinate system: Boyer–Lindquist.A suspended plumb, held stationary outside the ergosphere, will experience an infinite/diverging radial pull as it approaches the static limit. At some point it will start to fall, resulting in a gravitomagnetically induced spinward motion.[clarification needed] An implication of this dragging of space is the existence of negative energies within the ergosphere.

Since the ergosphere is outside the event horizon, it is still possible for objects that enter that region with sufficient velocity to escape from the gravitational pull of the black hole. An object can gain energy by entering the black hole's rotation and then escaping from it, thus taking some of the black hole's energy with it. This process of removing energy from a rotating black hole was proposed by the mathematician Roger Penrose in 1969, and is called the Penrose process.[6] The maximum amount of energy gain possible for a single particle via this process is 20.7%,[7] in terms of its mass equivalence, and if this process is repeated by the same mass the theoretical maximum energy gain approaches 29% of its original mass-energy equivalent.[8] As this energy is removed, the black hole loses angular momentum, the limit of zero rotation is approached as spacetime dragging is reduced. In the limit, the ergosphere no longer exists. This process is considered a possible explanation for a source of energy of such energetic phenomena as gamma ray bursts.[9] Results from computer models show that the Penrose process is capable of producing the high energy particles that are observed being emitted from quasars and other active galactic nuclei.[citation needed]

The size of the ergosphere, the distance between the ergosurface and the event horizon, is not necessarily proportional to the radius of the event horizon, but rather to the black hole's gravity and its angular momentum. A point at the poles does not move, and thus has no angular momentum, while at the equator a point would have its greatest angular momentum. This variation of angular momentum that extends from the poles to the equator is what gives the ergosphere its oblated shape. As the mass of the black hole or its rotation speed increases, the size of the ergosphere increases as well.<ref>[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ergosphere Ergosphere]</ref>