2001/11/30 by Peter Todd Williams, Peter T. Williams, Williams, Peter Todd · 1 citation
Chemical Engineering · Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows #Rheology and Fluid Dynamics Studies #Sports Dynamics and Biomechanics #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0111603
8 pages, submitted to ApJL 9/25/01, revised 11/30/01
arxiv created 2001/11/30 · openalex publication_date 2001/11/30 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Jets are ubiquitous in astronomy. It has been conjectured that the existence of jets is intimately connected with the spin of the central object and the viscous angular momentum transport of the inner disk. Bipolar jet-like structures propelled by the viscous torque on a spinning central object are also known in a completely different context, namely the flow in the laboratory of a viscoelastic fluid. On the basis of an analogy of the tangled magnetic field lines of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence to the tangled polymers of viscoelastic polymer solutions, we propose a viscoelastic description of the dynamics of highly turbulent conductive fluid. We argue that the same mechanism that forms jets in viscoelastic fluids in the laboratory may be responsible for collimating and powering astrophysical jets by the angular momentum of the central object.