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Title: Radiation signatures from striped blazar jet
ABSTRACT Relativistic jets from supermassive black holes are among the most powerful and luminous astrophysical systems in Universe. We propose that the open magnetic field lines through the black hole, which drive a strongly magnetized jet, may have their polarity reversing over time scales related to the growth of the magnetorotational dynamo in the disc, resulting in dissipative structures in the jet characterized by reversing toroidal field polarities, referred to as ‘stripes’. The magnetic reconnection between the stripes dissipates the magnetic energy and powers jet acceleration. The striped jet model can explain the jet acceleration, large-scale jet emission, and blazar emission signatures consistently in a unified physical picture. Specifically, we find that the jet accelerates to the bulk Lorentz factor Γ ≳ 10 within 1-parsec distance from the central engine. The acceleration slows down but continues at larger distances, with intrinsic acceleration rate $\dot{\Gamma }/\Gamma$ between $0.0005$ and $0.005~\rm {yr^{-1}}$ at tens of parsecs, which is in very good agreement with recent radio observations. Magnetic reconnection continuously accelerates non-thermal particles over large distances from the central engine, resulting in the core-shift effect and overall flat-to-inverted synchrotron spectrum. The large-scale spectral luminosity peak νpeak is antiproportional to the location of the peak of the dissipation, which is set by the minimal stripe width lmin. The blazar zone is approximately at the same location. At this distance, the jet is moderately magnetized, with the comoving magnetic field strength and dissipation power consistent with typical leptonic blazar model parameters.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1910451 1816136
NSF-PAR ID:
10285893
Author(s) / Creator(s):
;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
Volume:
502
Issue:
1
ISSN:
0035-8711
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1145 to 1157
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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