Nuts and Bolts of the Black Hole Engine: General Relativistic Mechanics

Abstract

One of the most attractive, and also most daunting, features of astrophysics is that it brings together physics from many different fields and deals in the extremes of speed, gravity, temperature, and density. The deep gravitational potential of the black hole provides a stable engine block on which are hung all the key systems of the black hole engine. Many Schwarzschild radii away from the black hole lies the carburetion system. Fuel, in the form of gas clouds, or even whole stars, is tidally torn apart and dispersed into a smooth vapor of plasma flowing into the central regions of the engine.