UHECR Production by a Compact Black-Hole Dynamo: Application to Sgr A*

The possibility that the excess cosmic ray flux near 10$^{18}$ eV, reported recently by the AGASA group, is due to a compact black hole dynmo associated with the Sgr A* source is considered. Under the assumption that the Galactic center black hole rotates with nearly maximal spin, and that the magnetic field threading the horizon is in rough equipartition with matter accreted by the hole, the spectra and total fluxes of accelerated CRs and their associated curvature emission depend only on accretion rate. For the accretion rate estimated on the basis of observations of stellar winds near Sgr A* ($\sim 10^{-3}$ Eddington), the maximum proton energy achievable by this mechanism is of the order of $10^{18}$ eV, and the corresponding CR power is $\sim 10^{41}\alpha_{CR}$ erg s$^{-1}$, where $\alpha_{CR}<