Paper detail

Jet Luminosity From Neutrino-Dominated Accretion Flows in Gamma-Ray Bursts

A hyperaccretion disk formed around a stellar mass black hole is a plausible model for the central engine that powers gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). If the central black hole rotates and a poloidal magnetic field threads its horizon, a powerful relativistic jet may be driven by a process resembling the Blandford-Znajek mechanism. We estimate the luminosity of such a jet assuming that the poloidal magnetic field strength is comparable to the inner accretion disk pressure. We show that the jet efficiency attains its maximal value when the accretion flow is cooled via optically-thin neutrino emission. The jet luminosity is much larger than the energy deposition through neutrino-antineutrino annihilation provided that the black hole is spinning rapidly enough. When the accretion rate onto a rapidly spinning black hole is large enough (> 0.003-0.01M_sun/sec), the predicted jet luminosity is sufficient to drive a GRB.