Free-free absorption effects on Eddington luminosity

Abstract

In standard treatments the Eddington luminosity is calculated by assuming that the electron-photon cross section is well described by the Thomson cross section which is gray (frequency independent). Here we discuss some consequence of the introduction of free-free opacity in the Eddington luminosity computation: in particular, due to the dependence of free-free emission on the square of the gas density, it follows that the associated absorption cross section increases linearly with the gas density, so that in high density environments Eddington luminosity is correspondingly reduced. We present a summary of an ongoing exploration of the parameter space of the problem, and we conclude that Eddington luminosity in high density environments can be lowered by a factor of ten or more, making it considerably easier for black holes to accelerate and eject ambient gas.

4 pages, to appear in "Plasmas in the Laboratory and in the Universe: new insights and new challenges", G. Bertin, D. Farina, R. Pozzoli eds., AIP Conference Proceedings