- Award ID(s):
- 2034306
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10390974
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Astrophysical Journal
- Volume:
- 940
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 0004-637X
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 65
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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ABSTRACT Accreting black holes produce collimated outflows, or jets, that traverse many orders of magnitude in distance, accelerate to relativistic velocities, and collimate into tight opening angles. Of these, perhaps the least understood is jet collimation due to the interaction with the ambient medium. In order to investigate this interaction, we carried out axisymmetric general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations of jets produced by a large accretion disc, spanning over 5 orders of magnitude in time and distance, at an unprecedented resolution. Supported by such a disc, the jet attains a parabolic shape, similar to the M87 galaxy jet, and the product of the Lorentz factor and the jet half-opening angle, γθ ≪ 1, similar to values found from very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) jets; this suggests extended discs in AGNs. We find that the interaction between the jet and the ambient medium leads to the development of pinch instabilities, which produce significant radial and lateral variability across the jet by converting magnetic and kinetic energy into heat. Thus pinched regions in the jet can be detectable as radiating hotspots and may provide an ideal site for particle acceleration. Pinching also causes gas from the ambient medium to become squeezed between magnetic field lines in the jet, leading to enhanced mass loading and deceleration of the jet to non-relativistic speeds, potentially contributing to the spine-sheath structure observed in AGN outflows.
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Abstract We analyze all the available Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array archival data for the nearby type-II Seyfert galaxy NGC 1068, including new 100 GHz data with an angular resolution of 005, which was not included in previous continuum spectral analyses. By combining with the literature data based on the Very Large Array, we investigate the broad-band radio continuum spectrum of the central ≲7 pc region of NGC 1068. We find that the flux density is between ≈10 and 20 mJy at 5–700 GHz. Due to the inability of the model in previous studies to account for the newly added 100 GHz data point, we proceeded to update the models and make the necessary adjustments to the parameters. One possible interpretation of this broad-band radio spectrum is a combination of emission from the jet base, the dusty torus, and the compact X-raying corona with a magnetic field strength of ≈20 G on scales of ≈30 Schwarzschild radii from the central black hole. In order to firmly identify the compact corona by omitting any other possible extended components (e.g., free–free emission from ionized gas in the vicinity), high-resolution/sensitivity observations achieved by next-generation interferometers will be necessary.
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