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ABSTRACT Accreting black holes (BHs) launch relativistic collimated jets, across many decades in luminosity and mass, suggesting the jet launching mechanism is universal, robust, and scale-free. Theoretical models and general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) simulations indicate that the key jet-making ingredient is large-scale poloidal magnetic flux. However, its origin is uncertain, and it is unknown if it can be generated in situ or dragged inward from the ambient medium. Here, we use the GPU-accelerated GRMHD code h-amr to study global 3D BH accretion at unusually high resolutions more typical of local shearing box simulations. We demonstrate that turbulence in a radially extended accretion disc can generate large-scale poloidal magnetic flux in situ, even when starting from a purely toroidal magnetic field. The flux accumulates around the BH till it becomes dynamically important, leads to a magnetically arrested disc (MAD), and launches relativistic jets that are more powerful than the accretion flow. The jet power exceeds that of previous GRMHD toroidal field simulations by a factor of 10 000. The jets do not show significant kink or pinch instabilities, accelerate to γ ∼ 10 over three decades in distance, and follow a collimation profile similar to the observed M87 jet.
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Magnetocentrifugal Origin for Protostellar Jets Validated through Detection of Radial Flow at the Jet Base
Abstract Jets can facilitate the mass accretion onto the protostars in star formation. They are believed to be launched from accretion disks around the protostars by magnetocentrifugal force, as supported by the detections of rotation and magnetic fields in some of them. Here we report a radial flow of the textbook-case protostellar jet HH 212 at the base to further support this jet-launching scenario. This radial flow validates a central prediction of the magnetocentrifugal theory of jet formation and collimation, namely, the jet is the densest part of a wide-angle wind that flows radially outward at distances far from the (small, sub-au) launching region. Additional evidence for the radially flowing wide-angle component comes from its ability to reproduce the structure and kinematics of the shells detected around the HH 212 jet. This component, which can transport material from the inner to outer disk, could account for the chondrules and Ca–Al-rich inclusions detected in the solar system at large distances.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1910106
- PAR ID:
- 10333016
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Astrophysical Journal Letters
- Volume:
- 927
- Issue:
- 2
- ISSN:
- 2041-8205
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- L27
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.3847/2041-8213/ac59c0
