Using the three-dimensional relativistic magnetohydrodynamic code RAISHIN, we investigated the influence of radial density profile on the spatial development of the current-driven kink instability along magnetized rotating, relativistic jets. For the purpose of our study, we used a non-periodic computational box, the jet flow is initially established across the computational grid, and a precessional perturbation at the inlet triggers the growth of the kink instability. We studied light as well as heavy jets with respect to the environment depending on the density profile. Different angular velocity amplitudes have been also tested. The results show the propagation of a helically kinked structure along the jet and relatively stable configuration for the lighter jets. The jets appear to be collimated by the magnetic field and the flow is accelerated due to conversion of electromagnetic into kinetic energy. We also identify regions of high current density in filamentary current sheets, indicative of magnetic reconnection, which are associated to the kink unstable regions and correlated to the decrease of the sigma parameter of the flow. We discuss the implications of our findings for Poynting-flux dominated jets in connection with magnetic reconnection process. We find that fast magnetic reconnection may be driven by the kink-instability turbulence and govern the transformation of magnetic into kinetic energy thus providing an efficient way to power and accelerate particles in AGN and gamma-ray-burst relativistic jets.

We attempt to explain the observed radio and gamma-ray emission produced in the surrounds of black holes by employing a magnetically-dominated accretion flow (MDAF) model and fast magnetic reconnection triggered by turbulence. In earlier work, standard disk model was used and we refine the model by focussing on the sub-Eddington regime to address the fundamental plane of black hole activity. The results do not change substantially with regard to previous work ensuring that the details of the accretion physics are not relevant in the magnetic reconnection process occurring in the corona. Rather our work puts fast magnetic reconnection events as a powerful mechanism operating in the core region, near the jet base of black hole sources on more solid ground. For microquasars and low-luminosity active galactic nuclei (LLAGNs) the observed correlation between radio emission and mass of the sources can be explained by this process. The corresponding gamma-ray emission also seems to be produced in the same core region. On the other hand, the emission from blazars and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) cannot be correlated to core emission based on fast reconnection.

Fast magnetic reconnection events can be a very powerful mechanism operating in the core region of microquasars and AGNs. In earlier work, it has been suggested that the power released by fast reconnection events between the magnetic field lines lifting from the inner accretion disk region and the lines anchored into the central black hole could accelerate relativistic particles and produce the observed radio emission from microquasars and low luminosity AGNs (LLAGNs). Moreover, it has been proposed that the observed correlation between the radio emission and the mass of these sources, spanning 10 10 orders of magnitude in mass, might be related to this process. In the present work, we revisit this model comparing two different fast magnetic reconnection mechanisms, namely, fast reconnection driven by anomalous resistivity (AR) and by turbulence (as described in Lazarian & Vishiniac 1999). We apply the scenario above to a much larger sample of sources (including also blazars, and gamma-ray bursts -GRBs), and find that LLAGNs and microquasars do confirm the trend above. Furthermore, when driven by turbulence, not only their radio but also their gamma-ray emission can be due to magnetic power released by fast reconnection, which may accelerate particles to relativistic velocities in the core region of these sources. Thus the turbulent-driven fast reconnection model is able to reproduce better the observed emission than the AR model. On the other hand, the emission from blazars and GRBs does not follow the same trend as that of the LLAGNs and microquasars, suggesting that the radio and gamma-ray emission in these cases is produced further out along the jet, by another population of relativistic particles, as expected.

Magnetized jets in gamma-ray bursts and active galactic nuclei are thought to be efficient accelerators of particles; however, the process responsible for the acceleration is still a matter of active debate. In this work, we study the kink instability in non-rotating force-free jets using first-principle particle-in-cell simulations. We obtain similar overall evolution of the instability as found in magnetohydrodynamics simulations. The instability first generates large-scale current sheets, which at later times break up into small-scale turbulence. Reconnection in these sheets proceeds in the strong guide field regime, which results in a formation of steep power laws in the particle spectra. Later evolution shows heating of the plasma, which is driven by small-amplitude turbulence induced by the kink instability. These two processes energize particles due to a combination of ideal and non-ideal electric fields.

The interaction of gamma-ray burst (GRB) jets with the dense media into which they are launched promote the growth of local hydrodynamic instabilities along the jet boundary. In a companion paper we study the evolution of hydrodynamic (unmagnetized) jets, finding that mixing of jet-cocoon material gives rise to an interface layer, termed jet-cocoon interface (JCI), which contains a significant fraction of the system energy. We find that the angular structure of the jet + JCI, when they reach the homologous phase, can be approximated by a flat core (the jet) + a power-law function (the JCI) with indices that depend on the degree of mixing. In this paper we examine the effect of subdominant toroidal magnetic fields on the jet evolution and morphology. We find that weak fields can stabilize the jet against local instabilities. The suppression of the mixing diminishes the JCI and thus reshapes the jet’s post-breakout structure. Nevertheless, the overall shape of the outflow can still be approximated by a flat core + a power-law function, although the JCI power-law decay is steeper. The effect of weak fields is more prominent in long GRB jets, where the mixing in hydrodynamic jets is stronger. In short GRB jets there is small mixing in both weakly magnetized and unmagnetized jets. This result influences the expected jet emission which is governed by the jet’s morphology. Therefore, prompt and afterglow observations in long GRBs may be used as probes for the magnetic nature at the base of the jets.