2017/09/04 by Emanuele Sobacchi, Sobacchi, E., Yuri Lyubarsky +1 · 1 citation
Physics and Astronomy · #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #Ionosphere and magnetosphere dynamics #Magnetic confinement fusion research #Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1709.01103
openalex publication_date 2017/09/04 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
In the paradigm of magnetic launching of astrophysical jets, instabilities in the MHD flow are a good candidate to convert the Poynting flux into the kinetic energy of the plasma. If the magnetised plasma fills the almost entire space, the jet is unstable to helical perturbations of its body. However, the growth rate of these modes is suppressed when the poloidal component of the magnetic field has a vanishing gradient, which may be the actual case for a realistic configuration. Here we show that, if the magnetised plasma is confined into a limited region by the pressure of some external medium, the velocity shear at the contact surface excites unstable modes which can affect a significant fraction of the jet's body. We find that when the Lorentz factor of the jet is Γ∼10 (Γ∼ 100), these perturbations typically develop after propagating along the jet for tens (hundreds) of jet's radii. Surface modes may therefore play an important role in converting the energy of the jet from the Poynting flux to the kinetic energy of the plasma, particularly in AGN. The scaling of the dispersion relation with (i) the angular velocity of the field lines and (ii) the sound speed in the confining gas is discussed.