Does the plasma composition affect the long term evolution of relativistic jets?

Details Does the plasma composition affect the long term evolution of relativistic jets? Does the plasma composition affect the long term evolution of relativistic jets?

2001-11-19

arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0111369v3

Mon.Not.Roy.Astron.Soc. 331 (2002) 615

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

41 pages, 12 png figures. See also high quality versions of the figures and several movies under http://www.mpa-garching.mpg

Scientific paper

10.1046/j.1365-8711.2002.05210.x

We study the influence of the matter content of extragalactic jets on their morphology, dynamics and emission properties. For this purpose we consider jets of extremely different compositions including pure leptonic and baryonic plasmas. Our work is based on two-dimensional relativistic hydrodynamic simulations of the long-term evolution of powerful extragalactic jets propagating into a homogeneous environment. The equation of state used in the simulations accounts for an arbitrary mixture of electrons, protons and electron-positron pairs. Using the hydrodynamic models we have also computed synthetic radio maps and the thermal Bremsstrahlung X-ray emission from their cavities. Although there is a difference of about three orders of magnitude in the temperatures of the cavities inflated by the simulated jets, we find that both the morphology and the dynamic behaviour are almost independent on the assumed composition of the jets. Their evolution proceeds in two distinct epochs. During the first one multidimensional effects are unimportant and the jets propagate ballistically. The second epoch starts when the first larger vortices are produced near the jet head causing the beam cross section to increase and the jet to decelerate. The evolution of the cocoon and cavity is in agreement with a simple theoretical model. The beam velocities are relativistic ($\Gamma \simeq 4$) at kiloparsec scales supporting the idea that the X-ray emission of several extragalactic jets may be due to relativistically boosted CMB photons. The radio emission of all models is dominated by the contribution of the hot spots. All models exhibit a depression in the X-rays surface brightness of the cavity interior in agreement with recent observations.

Affiliated with

Also associated with

No associations

Rating

Does the plasma composition affect the long term evolution of relativistic jets? 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 Does the plasma composition affect the long term evolution of relativistic jets?, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Does the plasma composition affect the long term evolution of relativistic jets? will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

Comments { 0 }

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-394447