The Relativistic Outflow Driven by the Large-scale Magnetic Field from an Accretion Disk
Outflows/jets are ubiquitous in a wide range of astrophysical objects, yet the mechanisms responsible for their generation remain elusive. One hypothesis is that they are magnetically driven. Based on general relativistic MHD equations, we establish a formulation to describe the outflows driven by l...
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | The Astrophysical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adc100 |
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| author | Wei Xie Wei-Hua Lei |
| author_facet | Wei Xie Wei-Hua Lei |
| author_sort | Wei Xie |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Outflows/jets are ubiquitous in a wide range of astrophysical objects, yet the mechanisms responsible for their generation remain elusive. One hypothesis is that they are magnetically driven. Based on general relativistic MHD equations, we establish a formulation to describe the outflows driven by large-scale magnetic fields from the accretion disk in Schwarzschild spacetime. The outflow solution manifests as a contour level of a “Bernoulli” function, which is determined by ensuring that it passes through both the slow and fast magnetosonic points. This approach is a general relativistic extension to the classical treatment of X. Cao & H. C. Spruit. The initial plasma β that permits magnetically driven outflow solutions is constrained, with the slow magnetosonic point above the footpoint setting an upper limit ( β _b ≲ 2) and the Alfvén point inside the light cylinder setting a lower limit ( β _b ≳ 0.02). The higher the magnetization, the higher the temperature allowed, leading to relativistic outflows/jets. We investigate the relativistic outflows/jets of several typical objects, such as active galactic nuclei, X-ray binaries, and gamma-ray bursts. The results indicate that all of these phenomena require strongly magnetized, high-temperature outflows as initial conditions, suggesting a potential association between the production of relativistic outflows/jets and corona-like structures. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-ca18ad60cb3343299bafc035bc4fcb02 |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 1538-4357 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
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| series | The Astrophysical Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-ca18ad60cb3343299bafc035bc4fcb022025-08-20T03:18:49ZengIOP PublishingThe Astrophysical Journal1538-43572025-01-01983214610.3847/1538-4357/adc100The Relativistic Outflow Driven by the Large-scale Magnetic Field from an Accretion DiskWei Xie0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5553-4577Wei-Hua Lei1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3440-1526Department of Astronomy, School of Physics and Electronic Science, Guizhou Normal University , Guiyang 550025, People’s Republic of China ; xieweispring@gznu.edu.cn; Guizhou Provincial Key Laboratory of Radio Astronomy and Data Processing, Guizhou Normal University , Guiyang 550025, People’s Republic of ChinaDepartment of Astronomy, School of Physics, Huazhong University of Science and Technology , Wuhan 430074, People’s Republic of China ; leiwh@hust.edu.cnOutflows/jets are ubiquitous in a wide range of astrophysical objects, yet the mechanisms responsible for their generation remain elusive. One hypothesis is that they are magnetically driven. Based on general relativistic MHD equations, we establish a formulation to describe the outflows driven by large-scale magnetic fields from the accretion disk in Schwarzschild spacetime. The outflow solution manifests as a contour level of a “Bernoulli” function, which is determined by ensuring that it passes through both the slow and fast magnetosonic points. This approach is a general relativistic extension to the classical treatment of X. Cao & H. C. Spruit. The initial plasma β that permits magnetically driven outflow solutions is constrained, with the slow magnetosonic point above the footpoint setting an upper limit ( β _b ≲ 2) and the Alfvén point inside the light cylinder setting a lower limit ( β _b ≳ 0.02). The higher the magnetization, the higher the temperature allowed, leading to relativistic outflows/jets. We investigate the relativistic outflows/jets of several typical objects, such as active galactic nuclei, X-ray binaries, and gamma-ray bursts. The results indicate that all of these phenomena require strongly magnetized, high-temperature outflows as initial conditions, suggesting a potential association between the production of relativistic outflows/jets and corona-like structures.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adc100Black holesHigh energy astrophysicsAstrophysical fluid dynamicsMagnetohydrodynamicsRelativistic jets |
| spellingShingle | Wei Xie Wei-Hua Lei The Relativistic Outflow Driven by the Large-scale Magnetic Field from an Accretion Disk The Astrophysical Journal Black holes High energy astrophysics Astrophysical fluid dynamics Magnetohydrodynamics Relativistic jets |
| title | The Relativistic Outflow Driven by the Large-scale Magnetic Field from an Accretion Disk |
| title_full | The Relativistic Outflow Driven by the Large-scale Magnetic Field from an Accretion Disk |
| title_fullStr | The Relativistic Outflow Driven by the Large-scale Magnetic Field from an Accretion Disk |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Relativistic Outflow Driven by the Large-scale Magnetic Field from an Accretion Disk |
| title_short | The Relativistic Outflow Driven by the Large-scale Magnetic Field from an Accretion Disk |
| title_sort | relativistic outflow driven by the large scale magnetic field from an accretion disk |
| topic | Black holes High energy astrophysics Astrophysical fluid dynamics Magnetohydrodynamics Relativistic jets |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/adc100 |
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