Observational Signatures of Mass-loading in Jets Launched by Rotating Black Holes

Riordan, Michael O’; Pe’er, Asaf; McKinney, Jonathan C.

doi:10.3847/1538-4357/aaa0c4

Cited by 14 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 65 publications

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“…More recently, the force-free magnetosphere in a Kerr background has played a prominent role in the study of black hole astrophysics. Properties of the force-free magnetosphere and its abilities to extract energy and angular momentum was a general feature of a numerical study of the subject ( [5], [6] and [7]). From a theoretical point of view, analytical solutions to a Kerr force-free magnetosphere slowly emerged as well ( [8], [9] and [10]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Force-free Electrodynamics and Foliations in an arbitrary Spacetime

Menon

2020

Preprint

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In this paper we formulate the relationship between force-free electrodynamics and foliations. The background metric, is considered predetermined and electrically neutral, but otherwise arbitrary. As it turns out, solutions to force-free electrodynamics is intimately connected to the existence of foliations of a spacetime with prescribed properties. We also prove a local existence and uniqueness theorem and provide a recipe for constructing the unique solution/class of solutions when certain conditions are met. We clarify the theorem with examples. We are also able to also prove a singularity theorem for when non-null solutions approach the null limit. Here too, we construct an explicit example to illustrate the singularity theorem.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Force-free Electrodynamics and Foliations in an arbitrary Spacetime

Menon

2020

Preprint

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“…The main reasons for this are: (1) a rather weak dependence of the morphology of radio lobes on the matter content and magnetisation of the underlying jets (e.g, E-mail: sikora@camk.edu.pl † E-mail: knalew@camk.edu.pl Mignone et al 2010); (2) a variety of dissipation mechanisms which can lead to similar radiative properties of jets (e.g., Blandford et al 2019, and refs. therein); (3) an unknown efficiency of loading jets by mass (e.g., O' Riordan et al 2018); (4) a poor observational knowledge of the jets lateral structure (e.g., Perlman et al 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…One might try to recover information about the proton content by studying the rates at which matter can entrain the jet at its base via interchange instabilities. However, because the jets are formed as strongly electromagnetically dominated outflows, the efficiency of the proton loading cannot be self-consistently estimated using the currently available general relativistic MHD numerical simulations (O' Riordan et al 2018). Jets can also be entrained by protons on larger distances, as a result of their interactions with the external medium (Chatterjee et al 2019), or intrinsically -by winds of stars enclosed within the jet volume (Komissarov 1994;Perucho et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

On the significance of relativistically hot pairs in the jets of FR II radio galaxies

Sikora,

Nalewajko,

Madejski

2020

Preprint

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The energetic composition of radio lobes in the FR II galaxies -estimated by comparing their radio luminosities with the powers required to inflate cavities in the external medium -seems to exclude the possibility of their energetic domination by protons. Furthermore, if the jets were dominated by the kinetic energy of cold protons, it would be difficult to efficiently accelerate leptons in the jets' terminal shocks. This suggests that the jets powering the lobes are dominated by pairs not only in number but also in enthalpy. Such a possibility is confronted against the constraints imposed by the jet formation scenarios, and by the properties of jets on parsec and kiloparsec scales. We find a lower limit on the pair content from the energetic dominance of leptons over protons in the radio lobes, which exceeds the estimate of n e /n p ∼ 20 indicated by models of the blazar zones and of the radio cores. This allows us to establish that the average energy of protons in the jet co-moving frame is < 2m p c 2 , and to estimate the number fluxes of protons and e + e − pairs. The required proton flux is achievable, if the jet carries away about 1% of the accreting matter. Loading the jets by pairs can be achieved by pair creation using soft γ-ray photons from the accretion disk corona, provided that about 2-3% of the disk radiation extends beyond 1 MeV. Finally, we discuss possible dissipative mechanisms which may keep the jets dominated by relativistically hot pairs.

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“…A remarkable example is the mass-loading of the jets, caused by the known failure of up-to-date GRMHD codes inside the highly magnetized funnel [102], with important implications in the jet composition issue (see Section 2.2) and the interpretation of the future observations from the EHT [103]. O'Riordan and collaborators [104] investigated the observational signatures of mass loading in the funnel by performing general-relativistic radiative transfer calculations on a range of 3D-GRMHD simulations of accreting BHs by removing the contribution to the spectrum of the artificially supplied floor material, i.e., restricting the analysis to the case where the funnel material is highly magnetized. Conversely, Broderick and Tchekhovskoy [105] considered the creation and acceleration of pairs at the stagnation surface of Poynting-dominated jets and the subsequent inverse Compton cascade as the mechanism for filling the jets with non-thermal particles near the horizon to explain the compact radio emission in M 87.…”

Section: General Relativistic Radiative Transfer Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical Simulations of Jets from Active Galactic Nuclei

Martí

2019

Galaxies

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Numerical simulations have been playing a crucial role in the understanding of jets from active galactic nuclei (AGN) since the advent of the first theoretical models for the inflation of giant double radio galaxies by continuous injection in the late 1970s. In the almost four decades of numerical jet research, the complexity and physical detail of simulations, based mainly on a hydrodynamical/magneto-hydrodynamical description of the jet plasma, have been increasing with the pace of the advance in theoretical models, computational tools and numerical methods. The present review summarizes the status of the numerical simulations of jets from AGNs, from the formation region in the neighborhood of the supermassive central black hole up to the impact point well beyond the galactic scales. Special attention is paid to discuss the achievements of present simulations in interpreting the phenomenology of jets as well as their current limitations and challenges.

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Observational Signatures of Mass-loading in Jets Launched by Rotating Black Holes

Cited by 14 publications

References 65 publications

Force-free Electrodynamics and Foliations in an arbitrary Spacetime

Force-free Electrodynamics and Foliations in an arbitrary Spacetime

On the significance of relativistically hot pairs in the jets of FR II radio galaxies

Numerical Simulations of Jets from Active Galactic Nuclei

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