The astrophysical jets
Abstract
In this published note I attempt to sketch my understanding of the universal working scheme of all the astrophysical jet sources, or `bipolar flows', on both stellar and galactic scales, also called `microquasars', and `quasars'. A crucial building block will be their medium: extremely relativistic e+/--pair plasma performing quasi loss-free E × B-drifts through self-rammed channels, whose guiding equi-partition E- and B-fields convect the electric potential necessary for eventual single-step post-acceleration, at their terminating `knots', or `hotspots'. The indispensible pair plasma is generated in magnetospheric reconnections of the central rotator. Already for this reason, black holes cannot serve as jet engines.
- Publication:
-
Jets at All Scales
- Pub Date:
- February 2011
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S1743921310015693
- Bibcode:
- 2011IAUS..275...92K
- Keywords:
-
- black hole physics;
- plasmas;
- ISM: jets and outflows;
- galaxies: jets