# Vacuum Breakdown near a Black Hole Charged by Hypercritical Accretion

## 1 Charging a Black Hole by Accretion

Let us consider a star of mass $`M`$ which undergoes spherical accretion and assume, for simplicity, that the accreting material is ionized hydrogen. If the accretion luminosity is $`L`$, the infalling electrons experience a radiative force

$$F_R=\frac{\sigma _TL}{4\pi cr^2}$$
(1)   
where $`\sigma _T`$ is the Thomson cross section. Since the radiation drag acting on the protons is a factor $`(m_e/m_p)^2`$ smaller, electrons and protons are subject to different accelerations, so an electrostatic field is built up at the star surface in order to equalize the two flows. As first discussed by Shvartsman (1970, see also Michel 1972; Maraschi, Reina, & Treves 1974, 1978; Turolla, et al. 1997) the positive charge $`Q`$ associated with the electrostatic field is approximately given by

$$Q=\frac{GMm_p}{e}\frac{L}{L_E}$$
(2)   
where $`L_E=4\pi GMm_pc/\sigma _T`$ is the Eddington luminosity. Note that in the critical case ($`L=L_E`$) the charge to mass ratio is independent of the mass. If the spherical star is replaced by a non–rotating black hole the above considerations hold the same. By analyzing the equation of motion of a test particle in the Reissner–Nördstrom spacetime subject to the drag exerted by a radiation field of luminosity $`L`$, it is easy to see that the required charge is still given by equation (2), where now $`L`$ is the luminosity measured by an observer comoving with the particles (see Appendix). We note that close to the black hole matter flows in supersonically so the ballistic appoximation used to study the motion of the particles is justified. Besides, for the black hole masses we are interested in (see the following section) the characteristic time for Coulomb collisions between electrons and protons (see e.g. Spitzer 1956, pag. 80) is at least one order of magnitude larger that the free–fall time and the two species are decoupled. Although formally the spacetime is Reissner–Nördstrom, deviations from the Schwarzschild metric are not expected to be of any relevance since the black hole charge (in geometrized units) is $`Q(m_p/e)MM`$ (see Michel 1972). This is in agreement with the general argument by Wald (1984, see also Novikov, & Frolov 1989) that the charge to mass ratio of a black hole must be smaller than $`m_p/e`$ in any realistic situation.

There is an important difference between the case of a classical star and a black hole as far as the accretion luminosity is concerned. For accretion onto a star of radius $`R_{}`$, the efficiency, assuming Newtonian gravity, is simply $`\eta =GM/R_{}c^2`$, while in the case of spherical accretion onto a black hole, $`\eta `$ depends substatially on many factors, like the efficiency of radiative processes, or the strength of the frozen–in magnetic field (see e.g. Shapiro 1973a, b; Mèszàros 1975) and is typically much lower.

## 2 Particle Creation

The issue of pair creation in the electric field of a charged black hole was investigated by many authors starting from the early ’70s (see e.g. Novikov, & Frolov 1989 and references therein). The main conclusion is that the hole charge is radiated away over a timescale shorter than the characteristic time for the hole to evaporate because of Hawking radiation. This result, however, holds if the black hole has a “seed” charge which is not resupplied as time elapses. In the following we will give a rough estimate of the conditions under which the accretion–induced electrostatic field $`E`$ is likely to produce electron–positron pairs. We neglect all curvature effects and assume that the condition for vacuum breakdown (Klein instability) is given by the semi–classical expression (see e.g. Novikov, & Frolov 1989, p. 190)

$$eE\lambda _C=2m_ec^2$$
(3)   
where $`\lambda _C`$ is the Compton wavelength of the electron. On a scale of the order of the Schwarzschild radius $`r_G`$ and assuming $`LL_E`$, the electrostatic field is

$$E\frac{Q}{r_G^2}\frac{m_pc^4}{4GMe}.$$
(4)   
Following Gibbons (1975), we take as a first estimate of the breakdown condition what results inserting equation (4) into equation (3)

$$\frac{hm_pc^3}{4GMm_e}=2m_ec^2.$$
(5)   
Equation (5) translates into an upper limit for the black hole mass, above which the electric field is too weak to give raise to pairs

$$M\frac{1}{8}\frac{m_p}{m_e^2}\frac{hc}{G}=M_c6.6\times 10^{20}\mathrm{g}.$$
(6)   
Note that $`(hc/G)^{1/2}=5.5\times 10^5\mathrm{g}`$ is the Planck mass.

A black hole of mass $`10^{20}\mathrm{g}`$ has a gravitational radius $`r_G10^8\mathrm{cm}`$ and it is a rather peculiar object. Obviously black holes of such a low mass can not be produced by stellar collapse and one can only appeal to a cosmological origin (see e.g. Carr, & Hawking 1974). Since $`M_c`$ is substantially larger than the mass below which Hawking radiation evaporates the holes in a Hubble time, $`M_H5\times 10^{14}\mathrm{g}`$, one can argue that if mini black holes of $`10^{20}\mathrm{g}`$ were created in the initial phases of the Universe, they should still survive.

The condition for producing an electric field which breaks the vacuum was derived assuming that $`LL_E7\times 10^{24}\mathrm{erg}\mathrm{s}^1`$ for $`M10^{20}\mathrm{g}`$. Assuming an extreme efficiency $`\eta =0.1`$, this corresponds to an accretion rate $`\dot{M}8\times 10^4\mathrm{g}\mathrm{s}^1`$. If the Bondi–Hoyle accretion scenario applies, the accretion radius is

$$R_a=\frac{2GM}{v^2}$$
(7)   
where $`v`$ is the relevant velocity. The accretion rate turns out to be

$$\dot{M}=4\pi R_a^2\rho v.$$
(8)   
For $`v4\times 10^7\mathrm{cm}\mathrm{s}^1`$ a typical value for the thermal velocity at the center of low main sequence stars, this implies $`R_a10^2\mathrm{cm}`$ and a density $`\rho 3\mathrm{g}\mathrm{cm}^3`$. The time scale for the hole mass to change is $`M/\dot{M}4\times 10^7`$ yr.

The conditions for critical accretion can be found at centers of stars, and, possibly, in a cosmological scenario as well. If pair production due to vacuum breakdown does occur, one should take into account a possible reduction of the Eddington luminosity, if the atmosphere surrounding the mini black hole is dominated by pairs. This in turn may put the system in a condition below the threshold for vacuum breakdown. The situation is analogous to that considered by us in the contest of hot solution in accreting neutron stars yielding pair production (Zane, Turolla, & Treves 1998). Still the basic point which one should bear in mind is that the critical luminosity for these mini black holes would be orders of magnitude below that of the host star. Unless a star contains billions of mini holes, no observational consequence can come to our mind.

## 3 Conclusion

Using semiclassical arguments we have shown that a black hole of mass $`10^{20}\mathrm{g}`$ accreting hypercritically may produce an electric field which is strong enough to give raise to pair production via the Klein instability. The astrophysical scenarios in which these conditions are met are clearly extreme, but not totally unconceivable. The main merit of our argument may be that using a very simple and easily understood mechanism for charging a black hole, it is found that vacuum breakdown occurs for masses which are three orders of magnitude larger than the limiting mass at which the time for evaporation due to Hawking radiation compares with the age of the Universe. In concluding we would like to state clearly that the process of particle creation envisaged here is rather different from that proposed by Hawking (1974) which is a pure curvature effect. Here pair production is due only to the presence of an electric field outside the horizon and the field is a direct consequence of accretion.

We are grateful to Maurizio Martellini for enlightening discussions.    

## Appendix A Appendix

In a Reissner–Nördstrom spacetime

$$ds^2=\left(1\frac{2M}{r}+\frac{Q^2}{r^2}\right)dt^2+\left(1\frac{2M}{r}+\frac{Q^2}{r^2}\right)^1dr^2+r^2d\mathrm{\Omega }^2,$$
(A1)   
the equations of motion of a proton (p) and of an electron (e) are written as

$$a_p^i=\frac{e}{m_p}F_j^iu_p^j$$
(A2)   
$$a_e^i=\frac{e}{m_e}F_j^iu_e^j+f^i$$
(A3)   
where $`u^i`$ and $`a^i`$ are the particle 4–velocity and 4–acceleration, $`F_j^i`$ is the electromagnetic tensor and $`f^i`$ is the radiative 4–force per unit mass (see e.g. Ruffini 1973). Introducing a tetrad field $`e_{\widehat{a}}^i`$ comoving with the electrons (see e.g. Nobili, Turolla, & Zampieri 1991), $`a_{\widehat{r}}=e_{\widehat{r}}^ia_i`$ gives the particle acceleration measured by the comoving observer. The request that electrons and protons fall with the same speed translates then into

$$\frac{e}{m_e}F_{ij}e_{\widehat{r}}^iu_e^j+f_{\widehat{r}}=\frac{e}{m_p}F_{ij}e_{\widehat{r}}^iu_p^j$$
(A4)   
which is equivalent to

$$f_{\widehat{r}}\frac{e}{m_p}F_{ij}e_{\widehat{r}}^iu_p^j$$
(A5)   
where

$$f_{\widehat{r}}=\frac{\sigma _TL}{4\pi r^2cm_e}$$
(A6)   
is the radiative force (per unit mass) in the electron rest frame. Since the only non–vanishing components of the EM tensor are

$$F_{01}=F_{10}=\frac{Q}{r^2},$$
(A7)   
equation (A5) reduces to

$$\frac{\sigma _TL}{4\pi r^2cm_e}\frac{e}{m_e}\frac{\gamma ^2F_{01}}{\sqrt{g_{00}}\sqrt{g_{11}}}(v^21)=\frac{e}{m_e}\frac{Q}{r^2}$$
(A8)   
which yields

$$Q\frac{GMm_p}{e}\frac{L}{L_E}.$$
(A9)