Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astrophysics – High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Scientific paper
2009-01-30
Astrophys.J.697:1681-1694,2009
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astrophysics
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Submitted to ApJ, 14 pages, 11 figures, uses emulateapj.cls
Scientific paper
10.1088/0004-637X/697/2/1681
We consider a two-parameter family of cylindrical force-free equilibria, modeled to match numerical simulations of relativistic force-free jets. We study the linear stability of these equilibria, assuming a rigid impenetrable wall at the outer cylindrical radius R_j. We find that equilibria in which the Lorentz factor \gamma(R) increases monotonically with increasing radius R are stable. On the other hand, equilibria in which \gamma(R) reaches a maximum value at an intermediate radius and then declines to a smaller value \gamma_j at R_j are unstable. The most rapidly growing mode is an m=1 kink instability which has a growth rate ~ (0.4 / \gamma_j) (c/R_j). The e-folding length of the equivalent convected instability is ~2.5 \gamma_j R_j. For a typical jet with an opening angle \theta_j ~ few / \gamma_j, the mode amplitude grows weakly with increasing distance from the base of the jet, much slower than one might expect from a naive application of the Kruskal-Shafranov stability criterion.
Li Jason
Narayan Ramesh
Tchekhovskoy Alexander
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