skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Quasi-Static Model Of Magnetically Collimated Jets And Radio Lobes. Ii. Jet Structure And Stability

Journal Article · · The Astrophysical Journal (Online)
 [1];  [2]; ORCiD logo [1];  [3];  [4];  [4]
  1. Los Alamos National Lab. (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
  2. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States)
  3. Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
  4. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)

This is the second in a series of companion papers showing that when an efficient dynamo can be maintained by accretion disks around supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei, it can lead to the formation of a powerful, magnetically driven, and mediated helix that could explain both the observed radio jet/lobe structures and ultimately the enormous power inferred from the observed ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays. In the first paper, we showed self-consistently that minimizing viscous dissipation in the disk naturally leads to jets of maximum power with boundary conditions known to yield jets as a low-density, magnetically collimated tower, consistent with observational constraints of wire-like currents at distances far from the black hole. In this paper we show that these magnetic towers remain collimated as they grow in length at nonrelativistic velocities. Differences with relativistic jet models are explained by three-dimensional magnetic structures derived from a detailed examination of stability properties of the tower model, including a broad diffuse pinch with current profiles predicted by a detailed jet solution outside the collimated central column treated as an electric circuit. We justify our model in part by the derived jet dimensions in reasonable agreement with observations. Using these jet properties, we also discuss the implications for relativistic particle acceleration in nonrelativistically moving jets. The appendices justify the low jet densities yielding our results and speculate how to reconcile our nonrelativistic treatment with general relativistic MHD simulations.

Research Organization:
Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), Los Alamos, NM (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
89233218CNA000001
OSTI ID:
1492587
Report Number(s):
LA-UR-15-22466
Journal Information:
The Astrophysical Journal (Online), Vol. 813, Issue 2; ISSN 1538-4357
Publisher:
Institute of Physics (IOP)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Citation Metrics:
Cited by: 7 works
Citation information provided by
Web of Science

References (83)

Three‐dimensional Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Magnetized Spine‐Sheath Relativistic Jets journal June 2007
Heating Hot Atmospheres with Active Galactic Nuclei journal September 2007
Theory of extragalactic radio sources journal April 1984
Interpretation of VLBI kinematic and polarization data: Application to 3C 345 journal December 1994
Magnetic acceleration of ultrarelativistic jets in gamma-ray burst sources journal April 2009
Magnetic jets from swirling discs journal July 2006
m=1 ideal internal kink modes in a line-tied screw pinch journal September 2006
The effective acceleration of plasma outflow in the paraboloidal magnetic field journal March 2006
Electromagnetically driven relativistic jets - A class of self-similar solutions journal August 1992
The Madison plasma dynamo experiment: A facility for studying laboratory plasma astrophysics journal January 2014
Nonlinear growth of the tearing mode journal January 1973
Relaxation and magnetic reconnection in plasmas journal July 1986
On why discs generate magnetic towers and collimate jets journal June 2003
The design and operation of the SPHEX spheromak journal May 1997
Magnetohydrodynamic models of astrophysical jets [Magnitogidrodinamicheskie modeli astrofizicheskikh struinykh vybrosov] journal January 2010
Constraining the Nature of X‐Ray Cavities in Clusters and Galaxies journal November 2008
Stability of relativistic jets from rotating, accreting black holes via fully three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic simulations journal March 2009
Experimental Identification of the Kink Instability as a Poloidal Flux Amplification Mechanism for Coaxial Gun Spheromak Formation journal May 2003
Simulations of ultrarelativistic magnetodynamic jets from gamma-ray burst engines journal August 2008
Line-tied kink modes in cylindrical equilibria with magnetic shear journal July 2007
A Measurement of the Electromagnetic Luminosity of a Kerr Black Hole journal August 2004
Asymptotic Structure of Poynting-Dominated jets journal June 2009
Hydromagnetic flows from accretion discs and the production of radio jets journal August 1982
Magnetic Helix Formation Driven by Keplerian Disk Rotation in an External Plasma Pressure: The Initial Expansion Stage journal November 2001
Transmission line analogy for relativistic Poynting-flux jets journal February 2013
Dynamo model of double radio sources journal August 1976
Force-Free Pulsar Magnetosphere-I: THE STEADY, AXISYMMETRIC THEORY FOR THE CHARGE-SEPARATED PLASMA journal June 1974
Ohm's law for mean magnetic fields journal February 1986
MHD equilibria in a spheromak sustained by coaxial helicity injection journal July 1999
Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamics with Application to Gamma‐Ray Burst Outflows. I. Theory and Semianalytic Trans‐Alfvenic Solutions journal October 2003
Mojave. x. Parsec-Scale jet Orientation Variations and Superluminal Motion in Active Galactic Nuclei journal October 2013
Magnetic Confinement of Jets journal December 1993
Hydromagnetic stability of a diffuse linear pinch journal June 1960
Mojave: Monitoring of jets in Active Galactic Nuclei with vlba Experiments. vi. Kinematics Analysis of a Complete Sample of Blazar jets journal November 2009
Spheromak formation and sustainment studies at the sustained spheromak physics experiment using high-speed imaging and magnetic diagnostics journal February 2006
General relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of magnetically choked accretion flows around black holes: Magnetically choked accretion flows journal June 2012
Local simulations of instabilities in relativistic jets - I. Morphology and energetics of the current-driven instability: CDI morphology and energetics journal March 2012
Three-Dimensional mhd Simulation of the Caltech Plasma jet Experiment: First Results journal July 2014
Tearing mode in the cylindrical tokamak journal January 1973
The Parabolic jet Structure in m87 as a Magnetohydrodynamic Nozzle journal September 2013
MEASUREMENT OF THE ELECTRIC CURRENT IN A kpc-SCALE JET journal October 2011
The role of the nϕ=1 column mode in spheromak formation journal April 2009
Magnetic collimation by accretion discs of quasars and stars journal March 1996
Stability of Relativistic Force-Free jets journal May 2009
Stability of tearing modes in tokamak plasmas journal July 1994
Stability Properties of Magnetic Tower Jets journal February 2007
Energy confinement and magnetic field generation in the SSPX spheromak journal May 2008
Stability of a relativistic rotating electron-positron jet: non-axisymmetric perturbations journal July 1996
Relativistic Stellar-Wind Torques journal October 1969
Introduction to Plasma Physics book January 1995
Sustained Spheromak Physics Experiment (SSPX): design and physics results journal October 2012
High-resolution, high dynamic range VLA images of the M87 jet at 2 centimeters journal May 1989
Magnetohydrodynamic Accretion Flows: Formation of Magnetic Tower Jet and Subsequent Quasi–Steady State journal April 2004
Electromagnetic extraction of energy from Kerr black holes journal July 1977
Simulations of the Poynting‐Robertson Cosmic Battery in Resistive Accretion Disks journal February 2008
Vertical Structure of Stationary Accretion Disks with a Large-Scale Magnetic Field journal April 2012
Modeling the Large‐Scale Structures of Astrophysical Jets in the Magnetically Dominated Limit journal May 2006
Self-similar force-free wind from an accretion disc journal February 2007
Magnetic acceleration of relativistic active galactic nucleus jets: Magnetic acceleration of AGN jets journal July 2007
High Magnetic Shear Gain in a Liquid Sodium Stable Couette Flow Experiment: A Prelude to an α Ω Dynamo journal April 2011
Jet Stability, Dynamics and Energy Transport journal January 2012
Relativistic mhd Simulations of Poynting Flux-Driven jets journal January 2014
Poynting Jets from Accretion Disks journal June 2002
Accretion and Plasma Outflow from Dissipationless Discs journal March 2010
A Magnetic α‐ω Dynamo in AGN Disks. I. The Hydrodynamics of Star‐Disk Collisions and Keplerian Flow journal March 2007
A Magnetic α‐ω Dynamo in AGN Disks. II. Magnetic Field Generation, Theories, and Simulations journal March 2007
Asymptotic structure of hydromagnetically driven relativistic winds journal August 1991
Causality and stability of cosmic jets journal July 2015
The Parsec-scale jet in quasar 3C 345 journal April 1995
A VLBA movie of the jet launch region in M87 journal October 2008
Dynamically important magnetic fields near accreting supermassive black holes journal June 2014
Collective Baryon Decay and Gravitational Collapse journal February 2014
Acceleration mechanisms 2: force-free reconnection journal May 2004
Discovery of sub- to Superluminal Motions in the m87 jet: an Implication of Acceleration from Sub-Relativistic to Relativistic Speeds journal December 2013
Structure of Magnetic Tower Jets in Stratified Atmospheres journal December 2006
Mojave. xii. Acceleration and Collimation of Blazar jets on Parsec Scales journal January 2015
Stellar Explosions by Magnetic Towers journal August 2006
Advection/Diffusion of Large-Scale b Field in Accretion Disks journal July 2009
A Numerical Model of Hercules A by Magnetic Tower: Jet/Lobe Transition, Wiggling, and the Magnetic Field Distribution journal October 2008
Simulating Astrophysical Jets in Laboratory Experiments journal July 2005
Ideal MHD book July 2014
Kink instability of relativistic force-free jets journal October 1999
Quasi-Static Model of Collimated jets and Radio Lobes. i. Accretion disk and jets journal June 2014

Cited By (1)