Probing Jet Compositions with Extreme Mass Ratio Binary Black Holes

Determining whether black hole jets are dominated by leptonic or baryonic matter remains an open question in high-energy astrophysics. We propose that extreme mass ratio binary (EMRB) black holes, where an intermediate mass secondary black hole (a “miniquasar”) periodically interacts with the accretion flow of a supermassive black hole (SMBH), offer a natural laboratory to probe jet composition. In an EMRB, the miniquasar jet is launched episodically after each disk-crossing event, triggered by the onset of super-Eddington accretion. The resulting emissions exhibit temporal evolution as the jet interacts with the SMBH accretion disk. Depending on whether the jet is leptonic or hadronic in composition, the radiative signatures differ substantially. Notably, a baryonic jet produces a more pronounced gamma-ray output than a purely leptonic jet. By modeling the evolution of the multifrequency characteristic features, it is suggested that the gamma-ray-to-UV emissions may serve as a diagnostic tool capable of distinguishing between leptonic and baryonic scenarios. The resulting electromagnetic signals, when combined with multi-messenger observations, offer a powerful means to constrain the physical nature of relativistic jets from black holes.

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Publication Details

Journal
Universe
Published
2025-11-07
DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/universe11110370
Primary Topic
Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Probing Jet Compositions with Extreme Mass Ratio Binary Black Holes

Hung-Yi Pu
Universe
Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
article

Probing Jet Compositions with Extreme Mass Ratio Binary Black Holes

Hung-Yi Pu
article en

Abstract

Determining whether black hole jets are dominated by leptonic or baryonic matter remains an open question in high-energy astrophysics. We propose that extreme mass ratio binary (EMRB) black holes, where an intermediate mass secondary black hole (a “miniquasar”) periodically interacts with the accretion flow of a supermassive black hole (SMBH), offer a natural laboratory to probe jet composition. In an EMRB, the miniquasar jet is launched episodically after each disk-crossing event, triggered by the onset of super-Eddington accretion. The resulting emissions exhibit temporal evolution as the jet interacts with the SMBH accretion disk. Depending on whether the jet is leptonic or hadronic in composition, the radiative signatures differ substantially. Notably, a baryonic jet produces a more pronounced gamma-ray output than a purely leptonic jet. By modeling the evolution of the multifrequency characteristic features, it is suggested that the gamma-ray-to-UV emissions may serve as a diagnostic tool capable of distinguishing between leptonic and baryonic scenarios. The resulting electromagnetic signals, when combined with multi-messenger observations, offer a powerful means to constrain the physical nature of relativistic jets from black holes.

UniverseVol. 11(11)
Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics, Academia Sinica (TW), National Taiwan Normal University (TW)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Ministry of Education, India, National Science and Technology Council, Astrophysics Division
Openalex Percentile: Top 77%
Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
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Probing Jet Compositions with Extreme Mass Ratio Binary Black Holes — Hung-Yi Pu · Universe (2025) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS