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arXiv · 1705.10425

Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in Two-Component Relativistic Jets

Kenji Toma·Serguei S. Komissarov·Oliver Porth
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Abstract

Relativistic jets associated with active galactic nuclei and gamma-ray bursts propagate over huge distances without significant loss of momentum. At the same time they are bright emitters, which is indicative of strong energy dissipation. This points towards a mechanism of internal dissipation which does not result in a global disruption of the flow. One possibility is internal shocks and another one is turbulence driven by local instabilities. Such instabilities can be triggered when a freely expanding jet is reconfined by either the cocoon or external gas pressure. In this paper we study the dynamics of two-component spine-sheath hydrodynamic jets coming into pressure equilibrium with external gas using 2D computer simulations. We find that the jet oscillations lead to a rapid onset of Rayleigh-Taylor-type instabilities, which results in additional internal dissipation and mixing of the jet components. Although slightly different in details, this outcome holds both for the heavy-spine-light-sheath and light-spine-heavy-sheath configurations. The results may provide an explanation to the spatial flaring observed in some AGN jets on kpc-scales.

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Kenji Toma, Serguei S. Komissarov, Oliver Porth. 2017-05-30. Rayleigh-Taylor Instability in Two-Component Relativistic Jets. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras%2Fstx1770

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