Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Scientific paper
2009-11-16
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
22 pages, 15 figures; accepted for publication in ApJ; incorporates changes according to referee
Scientific paper
We perform axisymmetric relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations to investigate the acceleration and collimation of jets and outflows from disks around compact objects. The fiducial disk surface (respectively a slow disk wind) is prescribed as boundary condition for the outflow. We apply this technique for the first time in the context of relativistic jets. The strength of this approach is that it allows us to run a parameter study in order to investigate how the accretion disk conditions govern the outflow formation. Our simulations using the PLUTO code run for 500 inner disk rotations and on a physical grid size of 100x200 inner disk radii. In general, we obtain collimated beams of mildly relativistic speed and mass-weighted half-opening angles of 3-7 degrees. When we increase the outflow Poynting flux by injecting an additional disk toroidal field into the inlet, Lorentz factors up to 6 are reached. These flows gain super-magnetosonic speed and remain Poynting flux dominated. The light surface of the outflow magnetosphere tends to align vertically - implying three relativistically distinct regimes in the flow - an inner sub-relativistic domain close to the jet axis, a (rather narrow) relativistic jet and a surrounding subrelativistic outflow launched from the outer disk surface - similar to the spine-sheath structure currently discussed for asymptotic jet propagation and stability. The outer subrelativistic disk wind is a promising candidate for the X-ray absorption winds that are observed in many radio-quiet AGN.
Fendt Ch.
Porth Oliver
No associations
LandOfFree
Acceleration and collimation of relativistic MHD disk winds does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.
If you have personal experience with Acceleration and collimation of relativistic MHD disk winds, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Acceleration and collimation of relativistic MHD disk winds will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-499145