Episodic Magnetic Bubbles and Jets: Astrophysical Implications from Laboratory Experiments
Abstract
Collimated outflows (jets) are ubiquitous in the universe appearing around sources as diverse as protostars and extragalactic supermassive blackholes. Jets are thought to be magnetically collimated, and launched from a magnetized accretion disk surrounding a compact gravitating object. We have developed the first laboratory experiments to address time-dependent, episodic phenomena relevant to the poorly understood jet acceleration and collimation region. The experimental results show the periodic ejections of magnetic bubbles naturally evolving into a heterogeneous jet propagating inside a channel made of self-collimated magnetic cavities. The results provide a unique view of the possible transition from a relatively steady-state jet launching to the observed highly structured outflows.
Cite
@article{arxiv.0811.2736,
title = {Episodic Magnetic Bubbles and Jets: Astrophysical Implications from Laboratory Experiments},
author = {Andrea Ciardi and Sergey V. Lebedev and Adam Frank and Francisco Suzuki-Vidal and Gareth N. Hall and Simon N. Bland and Adam Harvey-Thompson and Eric G. Blackman and Max Camenzind},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:0811.2736},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
13 pages 4 Figures, revised version. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal Letters