13–18 Dec 2015
International Conference Centre Geneva
Europe/Zurich timezone

Stability of relativistic two-component jets

16 Dec 2015, 17:59
20m
Level 0, Room 23 (International Conference Centre Geneva)

Level 0, Room 23

International Conference Centre Geneva

17 Rue de Varembé, 1211 Geneva

Speaker

Mr Dimitrios Millas (KU LEUVEN)

Description

Several observations of astrophysical jets show evidence of a structure in the direction perpendicular to the jet axis, leading to the development of “spine & sheath” models of jets. Two-component jets have been already examined (e.g. Meliani & Keppens 2007, Meliani & Keppens 2009) for relativistic hydrodynamic jets and relativistic magnetized jets with poloidal magnetic field. These studies focused on a two-component jet consisting of a highly relativistic inner jet and a slower - but still relativistic - outer jet surrounded by an unmagnetized environment. These jets were susceptible to a relativistic Rayleigh-Taylor-type instability, depending on the effective inertia ratio of the two components. This work is now extended by taking into account the presence of a non-zero toroidal magnetic field. We examine analytically the stability of this configuration and also perform numerical simulations, using MPI-AMRVAC, to compare with the previously studied cases. Depending on the configuration, the toroidal magnetic field might stabilize the previously mentioned case or trigger instabilities on a different time scale. Furthermore, the introduction of a toroidal magnetic field component allows examining different types of relativistic jets (Poynting dominated or matter dominated) by modifying the magnetization parameter. Thus, we can investigate different combinations of matter/ Poynting dominated two-component that will end up (un)stable.
Collaboration Rony Keppens & Zakaria Meliani

Primary author

Mr Dimitrios Millas (KU LEUVEN)

Co-authors

Prof. Rony Keppens (KU Leuven) Dr Zakaria Meliani (LUTH, Observatoire de Paris)

Presentation materials