English

On Lorentz Variability of Magnetically Dominated Relativistic Outflows

High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena 2025-12-23 v1

Abstract

In this Letter, we show that magnetized relativistic outflows can exhibit a relativistic effect in which Lorentz transformation maps magnetic field topology into apparent temporal variability in the observer's frame. Using a force-free Beltrami configurations as representative equilibria of magnetically dominated outflows, we demonstrate that Lorentz mapping of stationary helical magnetic field produces quasi-periodic modulation of observable electromagnetic signatures, without invoking intrinsic plasma variability. This effect may be described as an aberration of force-free magnetic fields under Lorentz transformation. The characteristic frequency of the time variability is determined by the helical wave-number of the magnetic field, the viewing angle, and the bulk Lorentz factor of the jet outflow, and scales linearly with Γ\Gamma. This establishes a purely kinematic relativistic origin of variability and introduces the concept of magnetic Lorentz seismology: the inference of magnetic field structure in relativistic outflows directly from observed temporal variability.

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.2512.18323,
  title  = {On Lorentz Variability of Magnetically Dominated Relativistic Outflows},
  author = {V. I. Berezhiani and N. L. Shatashvili and A. G. Tevzadze},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2512.18323},
  year   = {2025}
}

Comments

4 pages, 1 figure