Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics
Scientific paper
2003-03-21
Astrophys.J. 596 (2003) 1104
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
8 pages, 4 figures, submitted to the Astrophysical Journal. The companion paper is astro-ph/0303482
Scientific paper
10.1086/378227
We present exact radially self-similar solutions of special-relativistic magnetohydrodynamics representing ``hot'' super-Alfvenic outflows from strongly magnetized, rotating compact objects. We argue that such outflows can plausibly arise in gamma-ray burst (GRB) sources and demonstrate that, just as in the case of the trans-Alfvenic flows considered in the companion paper, they can attain Lorentz factors that correspond to a rough equipartition between the Poynting and kinetic-energy fluxes and become cylindrically collimated on scales compatible with GRB observations. As in the trans-Alfvenic case, the initial acceleration is thermal, but, in contrast to the solutions presented in Paper I, part of the enthalpy flux is transformed into Poynting flux during this phase. The subsequent, magnetically dominated acceleration can be significantly less rapid than in trans-Alfvenic flows.
Konigl Arieh
Vlahakis Nektarios
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