The Role of Magnetic Fields on Astrophysical Jets
Abstract
Highly collimated supersonic jets and less collimated outflows are observed to emerge from a wide variety of astrophysical objects. They are seen in young stellar objects (YSOs), proto-planetary nebulae, compact objects (such as galactic black holes or microquasars, and X-ray binary stars), and in the nuclei of active galaxies (AGNs). Despite their different physical scales (in size, velocity, and amount of energy transported), they have strong morphological similarities. What is the universal mechanism that can explain their origin? In this lecture, I briefly review the role that magnetic fields seem to play on the formation, structure, and propagation of these jets.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.astro-ph/0505521,
title = {The Role of Magnetic Fields on Astrophysical Jets},
author = {E. M. de Gouveia Dal Pino},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:astro-ph/0505521},
year = {2009}
}
Comments
12 pages, pdf file; Invited Review presented at the conference "Magnetic Fields in the Universe: from Laboratory and Stars to the Primordial Structures", Angra dos Reis (Brazil), November 2004. To be published at AIP Conference Procs., eds. E.M. de Gouveia Dal Pino, G. Lugones, & A. Lazarian (Melville: AIP), in press