Three general models have been constructed for the fantastically powerful “central engine” that powers the enormous energy output from quasars and active galactic nuclei (AGN). One model assumes a rapidly rotating accretion disk around a central black hole (however the disks, thick or thin, are subject to violent instabilities). Another assumes that in some postulated circuitry energy is extracted from the rotational portion of the deepest potential hole known, a black hole. Both models appear implausible.

The third model is the STRONG MAGNETIC FIELD MODEL (SMF) in which an extremely strong gravitationally bound current loop (GBCL) is formed during the gravitational collapse that forms the galaxy or quasar, producing a very intense dipole magnetic field anchored in the nucleus. SMF, first published in 1962, thus predicted the vertical magnetic field configuration seen today at our own galactic nucleus; to some the radio arcs observed suggest a dipole magnetic field there, just as SMF predicts.