Bondi-type accretion onto a Kerr black hole in the kinetic regime

Abstract: We derive an exact solution representing a Bondi-type stationary accretion of a kinetic (Vlasov) gas onto the Kerr black hole. The solution is exact in the sense that relevant physical quantities, such as the particle current density or the accretion rates, are expressed as explicit integrals, which can be evaluated numerically. Whereas the angular momentum accretion rate is shown to vanish exactly, we provide an analytic approximation which allows us to obtain simple formulas for the mass and energy accretion rates. These formulas are used to derive characteristic time scales of the black hole mass growth and the associated spin-down in two different scenarios: assuming that the ambient energy density is either constant or decreases on a cosmological scale.