Could a gravitational‑wave‑recoiling supermassive black…
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Could a gravitational‑wave‑recoiling supermassive black hole explain the Amaterasu Particle?
I’ve been reading about the 2021 “Amaterasu Particle,” the ultra‑high‑energy cosmic ray that hit Earth with \~2.4 × 10²⁰ eV. What puzzles me is that it seems to come from a direction with no obvious source — no AGN, no starburst galaxy, no magnetar, nothing energetic enough to accelerate a particle to that scale.
I’m wondering about a specific possibility and hoping someone with more astrophysics background can weigh in.
When two supermassive black holes merge, the remnant can receive a gravitational‑wave recoil kick. Some simulations suggest these kicks can reach thousands of km/s, potentially ejecting the SMBH from its host galaxy.
If a kicked SMBH retained an accretion disk or magnetic fields, could it produce a brief jet or acceleration event while traveling through intergalactic space? And if such an event occurred in a cosmic void, would the resulting UHECR experience minimal magnetic deflection, making its arrival direction appear unusually “clean”?
I’m not proposing this as *the* explanation — just wondering whether this is considered plausible within current astrophysics, and whether anyone has explored this idea in the literature.
#space
I’ve been reading about the 2021 “Amaterasu Particle,” the ultra‑high‑energy cosmic ray that hit Earth with \~2.4 × 10²⁰ eV. What puzzles me is that it seems to come from a direction with no obvious source — no AGN, no starburst galaxy, no magnetar, nothing energetic enough to accelerate a particle to that scale.
I’m wondering about a specific possibility and hoping someone with more astrophysics background can weigh in.
When two supermassive black holes merge, the remnant can receive a gravitational‑wave recoil kick. Some simulations suggest these kicks can reach thousands of km/s, potentially ejecting the SMBH from its host galaxy.
If a kicked SMBH retained an accretion disk or magnetic fields, could it produce a brief jet or acceleration event while traveling through intergalactic space? And if such an event occurred in a cosmic void, would the resulting UHECR experience minimal magnetic deflection, making its arrival direction appear unusually “clean”?
I’m not proposing this as *the* explanation — just wondering whether this is considered plausible within current astrophysics, and whether anyone has explored this idea in the literature.
#space
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