A&A 450, 887-898 (2006)
DOI: 10.1051/0004-6361:20054107
D. Giannios - H. C. Spruit
Max-Planck-Institute for Astrophysics, Box 1317, 85741 Garching, Germany
Received 26 August 2005 / Accepted 2 January 2006
Abstract
The role of kink instability in magnetically driven jets is explored
through numerical one-dimensional steady relativistic MHD calculations. The instability
is shown to have enough time to grow and influence the dynamics of Poynting-flux dominated
jets. In the case of AGN jets, the flow becomes kinetic flux dominated at distances
because of the rapid dissipation of Poynting flux. When applied
to GRB outflows, the model predicts more gradual Poynting dissipation and moderately magnetized
flow at distances of
1016 cm where the deceleration of the ejecta due to interaction
with the external medium is expected. The energy released by the instability can power the compact
"blazar zone'' emission and the prompt emission of GRB outflows with high radiative
efficiencies.
Key words: magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) - instabilities - gamma rays: bursts - quasars: general
Relativistic collimated outflows have been extensively observed in active galactic nuclei (AGN) and X-ray binaries (XRB). Gamma-ray bursts (GRB) are also believed to be connected to ultrarelativistic and collimated outflows to overcome the "compactness problem'' (e.g. Piran 1999) and to explain the achromatic afterglow breaks (Rhoads 1997; Sari et al. 1999). It is also believed that all these sources are powered by accretion of matter by a compact object.
The widely accepted mechanism for jet acceleration and collimation in the context of AGN and XRB jets is that of magnetic driving. According to this paradigm, magnetic fields anchored to a rotating object can launch an outflow. The rotating object can be a star (Weber & Davis 1967; Mestel 1968), a pulsar (Michel 1969; Goldreich & Julian 1970), an accretion disk (Bisnovatyi-Kogan & Ruzmaikin 1976; Blandford 1976; Lovelace 1976; Blandford & Payne 1982) or a rotating black hole (Blandford & Znajek 1977). The material is accelerated thermally up to the sonic point and centrifugally until the Alfvén point, defined as the point where the flow speed equals the Alfvén speed. After the Alfvén point the inertia of mater does not allow corotation of the magnetic field. As a result, the magnetic field lines bend, developing a strong toroidal component.
Further out the flow passes through the fast magnetosonic point where most of the energy of the flow remains in the form of Poynting flux in the case of relativistic outflows (Michel 1969; Goldreich & Julian 1970; Sakurai 1985; Beskin et al. 1998). Further acceleration of the flow is not straightforward within ideal MHD. It can be shown, for example, that a radial flow is not accelerated after the fast point (e.g. Beskin 1998). This is a result of the fact that the magnetic pressure and tension terms of the Lorentz force almost cancel each other (Begelman & Li 1994). A limited degree of acceleration of the flow is possible if it has a decollimating shape (i.e. the magnetic field diverges faster than radial; Li et al. 1992; Begelman & Li 1994).
Magnetized jets suffer from a number of instabilities. Interaction with the environment causes instabililty of the Kelvin-Helmholtz type and kink instability causes internal rearrangement of the field configuration. Here we focus on kink instability, since it internally dissipates magnetic energy associated with the Poynting flux. As demonstrated elsewhere (Drenkhahn 2002; Drenkhahn & Spruit 2002; Spruit & Drenkhahn 2003) such internal energy dissipation directly leads to acceleration of the flow. Dissipation steepens the radial decrease of magnetic pressure, thereby lifting the cancellation between outward pressure force and inward magnetic tension, and allowing the magnetic pressure gradient to accelerate the flow.
While dissipation of magnetic energy can thus happen through kink instability in an initially axisymmetric ("DC'') flow, it can also happen more directly by reconnection in the outflow generated by a non-axisymmetric rotator ("AC'' flow). The two cases behave differently in terms of the acceleration profile, and the location and amount of radiation produced by the dissipation process. A nonaxisymmetric rotator produces a "striped'' outflow (as in the case of a pulsar wind) with reconnectable changes of direction of the field embedded in the flow, and energy release independent of the opening angle of the jet. In the DC case, where energy release is instead mediated by an instability, the rate of energy release is limited by the time it takes an Alfvén wave to travel across the width of the jet. This makes it a sensitive function of the jet opening angle.
The "AC'' case has been studied in detail by Drenkhahn (2002), Drenkhahn & Spruit (2002), with application to Gamma-ray bursts. In the case of AGN and XRB, on the other hand, the collimated jet is arguably best understood if the field in the inner disk is of uniform polarity, resulting in an initially axisymmetric flow. Another difference is the lower bulk Lorentz factors in the AGN/XRB case, resulting in faster energy release (in units of the dynamical time of the central engine).
The purpose of this paper is to explore the consequences of magnetic dissipation by internal instability in such axisymmetric (or DC) cases, and its observational signatures. We also apply the calculations to the GRB case, where we compare the results with the AC case studied before.
We limit ourselves to a flow with constant opening angle. That is, we leave aside the collimation process. Kink instability is modeled by adding a sink term to the induction equation to account for the non-ideal MHD effects arising from it.
Linear stability
theory of kink instability yields a growth time of the order
where r is the radius of the jet,
its opening angle and
the Alfvén speed based on the
azimuthal component
of the field. This is independent of the poloidal field
component, at least for the so-called internal kink modes (which do not disturb the outer
boundary of the field, cf. Bateman 1978 for details). For stability analysis and numerical
simulations with astrophysical applications see, e.g. Begelman (1998); Appl et al. (2000);
Lery et al. (2000); Ouyed et al. (2003); Nakamura & Meier (2004). Based on linear
theory, we would predict that the poloidal field component
can be ignored for the rate of energy release.
It is not clear, however, that the poloidal
component can be ignored for the nonlinear development of the instability, which is
what actually determines the energy release. As a way to explore the effect
of possible nonlinear stabilization by a poloidal component we compare two cases
in the calculations: one with energy release and field decay given by the Alfvén time
across the jet (
above), and one in which this rate is assumed to be reduced
by the poloidal component. This mainly affects the early phases of the acceleration of the
flow beyond the light cylinder.
We find that kink instability has time to grow in the AGN and XRB cases, dissipating energy in the toroidal component of the magnetic field while accelerating the flow at the same time. The dissipation of magnetic energy is almost complete and fast in the case of AGN jets, so that on parsec scales the flow has become kinetic energy dominated, in agreement with current interpretations of the observations (e.g. Sikora et al. 2005, where the possible effects of magnetic dissipation are also discussed briefly).
The DC model with kink instability also produces significant flow acceleration in the GRB case, but conversion of the Poynting flux is less effective than the AC model in this case.
The structure of the paper is as follows. In Sect. 2 we discuss MHD instabilities in jets and focus on the kink instability and its growth rate. The model is described in Sect. 3 including the assumptions, the dynamical equations and the parameters at the base of the flow. In Sect. 4, we apply the model to the case of AGN jets and GRBs, while the last two sections present the discussion and conclusions.
Magnetized outflows are subject to a variety of instabilities. These can be classified as pressure driven, Kelvin-Helmholtz and current driven instabilities (see, e.g., Kadomtsev 1966; Bateman 1978). Pressure driven instabilities (Kersalé et al. 2000; Longaretti 2003) are related to the interplay between the gas pressure and the curvature of magnetic field lines. They are relevant close to the launching region of the outflows and may be important as long as the outflow is still subsonic. Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) instabilities (Ray 1981; Ferrari et al. 1981; Bodo et al. 1989; Hardee & Rosen 1999) arise from velocity gradients in the flow and may be important in the shearing layer between the outflow and the external medium. KH instabilities have been extensively studied and become strongest in the region beyond the Alfvén point but still within the fast magnetosonic point. Current driven (CD; Eichler 1993; Spruit et al. 1997; Begelman 1998; Lyubarskii 1999; Appl et al. 2000) instabilities have received much less attention but are the most relevant ones for Poynting-flux dominated outflows, since they can convert the bulk Poynting flux into radiation and kinetic energy of the flow (for the role of CD instabilities in an electromagnetic model for GRBs see Lyutikov & Blandford 2003). Among the CD instabilities, the m=1 kink instability is generally the most effective. In this work, we focus on the effect of the kink instability on the dynamics of these outflows.
While magnetized outflows can be accelerated "centrifugally'' by large scale poloidal fields (Blandford & Payne 1982; Sakurai 1985, 1987), at the radius of the light-cylinder inertial forces become significant and the magnetic field cannot force corotation. At this radius the strength of the toroidal and the poloidal components are comparable. Further out, the induction equation dictates that, within ideal MHD, the toroidal component dominates over the poloidal one since the strength of the former scales as 1/r while that of the latter as 1/r2. This magnetic configuration of a strongly wound-up magnetic field like this is known, however, to be highly unstable to the kink m=1 mode from tokamak experiments (see, e.g., Bateman 1978). Linear stability analysis has shown that the growth time of the instability is given by the Alfvén crossing time across the outflow in a frame comoving with it (Begelman 1998; Appl et al. 2000).
The study of the non-linear evolution of the instability demands three dimensional relativistic
MHD simulations over many decades of radii and it is, therefore, not surprising that the issue is not
settled. Lery et al. (2000) and Baty & Keppens (2002) argued in favor of the dynamical importance
of the instability in reorganizing the magnetic configuration inside the jet. It has been argued,
however, that the jet creates a "backbone'' of strong poloidal field which slows
down the development of instabilities (Ouyed et al. 2003; Nakamura & Meier 2004). In view of these
works and since the growth rate of the instability is important for this study, we
consider two alternatives for the non-linear stage of the instability. In the first case, the
instability proceeds at the Alfvén crossing time across the outflow (as suggested by linear stability
analysis) and rearranges the magnetic field configuration to a more chaotic one. In this case the
instability time scale is given by the expression (in the central engine frame)
For the second case, we reduce the dissipation rate by a suitable (but arbitrary)
function of the poloidal-to-toroidal field ratio.
![]() |
(2) |
A magnetically launched outflow passes through three characteristic points where the speed of the flow
equals the speed of slow mode, the poloidal Alfvén wave and the fast mode and are called the
slow magnetosonic, the Alfvén and the fast magnetosonic points respectively. For flows where the
energy density of the magnetic field dominates that of matter, the Alfvén point lies very close
to the light-cylinder
![]() |
(4) |
We set the initial conditions of our calculation at the fast magnetosonic point r0. To make
the problem tractable we make a number of simplifying assumptions. First, we limit ourselves to
a radial, static flow. Evidently, this approach does not allow us to explore the important issue
of jet collimation (see, however Sect. 5.1). Furthermore, the flow is assumed one-dimensional
by ignoring the structure of the jet in the direction. Also, we ignore
the azimuthal component of the velocity. This
component is not dynamically important beyond the fast magnetosonic point (e.g. Goldreich &
Julian 1970) and can be neglected from the dynamic equations. On the other hand, the poloidal
component (taken to be radial for simplicity) still has to be taken into account when modeling
the effect of the kink instability since it influences its growth timescale (see Eqs. (1), (2)).
These simplifying assumptions minimize the number of the free parameters of the model,
allowing us to study the effect of each on the jet dynamics, as will become clear
in the next sections.
To determine the characteristics of the flow as a function of radius, one needs the conservation
equations for mass, energy and angular momentum. These equations can be brought in the form
(if, for the moment, we neglect radiative losses; e.g. Lyutikov 2001; Drenkhahn 2002)
Mass conservation (5) can be integrated to yield mass flux per sterad
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(8) |
Finally, the strength of the radial component is given by flux conservation by the expression
The set of equations presented in the previous section is not complete. There is one more
equation needed to determine the problem at hand, which is the induction equation. For ideal MHD, the induction equation yields
and can be integrated to give the
scaling
for relativistic flows. One can immediately see that the Poynting-flux
term in Eq. (9) is approximately constant and no further acceleration of the
flow is possible within ideal MHD for a radial flow. This is a result of the fact that
the magnetic pressure and tension terms of the Lorentz force almost cancel each other (Begelman
& Li 1994).
We argue, however, that when the toroidal component of the magnetic field becomes dynamically dominant
the kink instability sets in. The instability drives its energy from
on the instability
growth time scale. This effect can be crudely modeled by the addition of one sink term on the right
hand side of the induction equation following Drenkhahn (2002), Drenkhahn & Spruit (2002)
The dynamical Eqs. (6) and (7)
are derived under the assumption that no energy or momentum escape from the
outflow. This is accurate when the instability releases energy in
the optically thick region of the flow. On the the other hand,
in the optically thin regime energy and momentum may be transfered into the
radiative form that escapes and does not interact with matter. Let
be
the emissivity of the medium in the comoving frame, that is, the energy
that is radiated away per unit time and per unit volume. If the
emission is isotropic in the comoving frame the energy and momentum
Eqs. (6), (7) including the radiative
loss terms are (Königl & Granot 2002)
The form of this cooling term we assume here is
The characteristics of the flow are determined when a number of quantities are specified at the
fast magnetosonic point r0 which is taken to be a few times the light cylinder radius
(Sakurai 1985; Begelman et al. 1994; Beskin et al. 1998),
or expressed in terms of the gravitational radius
of the central engine
.
These quantities are the initial magnetization
,
the
luminosity L, the opening angle
,
the ratio
and the
cooling length scale
.
The quantities one has to solve for so as to determine the characteristics of the flow
are
,
e, u and
as functions or radius r. This is done by integrating
numerically the mass, energy, momentum conservation equations and the modified induction equation.
The parameters of the model determine the initial values of
,
e, u and
at r0.
The initial four-velocity for our calculations is assumed to be
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(18) |
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(19) |
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(20) |
Although at first sight different, jets in AGNs (and microquasars) and GRBs probably have central
engines of similar characteristics. AGN jets are launched in the inner regions
of magnetized accretion disks (Blandford & Payne 1982), or drive their power by magnetic fields that are
threading the ergosphere of a rotating black hole (Blandford & Znajek 1977). In the case of GRBs,
the same central engine may be at work, or the energy is tapped by a millisecond magnetar
(Usov 1992; Kluzniak & Ruderman 1998; Spruit 1999). In all of these situations,
strong magnetic fields play an important role
and most of the energy is released in the form of Poynting flux.
All the above scenarios may give rise to magnetized outflows, whose evolution depends, to a large extent, on the dominance of the magnetic energy or on the ratio of the Poynting-flux to matter energy flux at the base of the flow. By varying this ratio, one can apply the model to jets in both the cases of GRBs and AGNs.
Relativistic jets are commonly observed in AGNs to have bulk Lorentz factors in the range
.
Such terminal Lorentz factors can be achieved for the ratio
of Poynting to matter energy flux of the order of several at the fast magnetosonic
Point r0. The location of the fast point is most likely at a few light cylinder radii
(e.g. Sakurai 1985; Camenzind 1986) and is taken to be
.
Actually,
is a very important parameter of the flow. Its effect on the acceleration
of the flow is clearly seen in Fig. 1, where the bulk Lorentz factor is plotted as a function
radius r for different
.
The rest of the parameters have the values
,
,
while the energy released by the instability is assumed to be locally radiated
away (this is done by taking the "cooling length'' parameter
). The results do not
depend on the luminosity L of the flow in the case of AGN jets, while r0 sets the scale
of the problem (since it is the only length scale) which means that the results can be trivially
rescaled in the case of a different choice of r0.
The solid lines in Fig. 1 correspond to the case where Eq. (1) is used for the timescale of the kink instability (i.e., the fast kink case) and the dashed lines to the case where
the instability is slowed down by the poloidal component of the magnetic field and the time scale is given by Eq. (2) (i.e., the slow kink case).
From Fig. 1, one can see that the instability acts quickly and accelerates the flow
within 1-2 orders of magnitude in distance from the location of the fast magnetosonic point.
The acceleration is faster in the "fast kink'' case and much more gradual in the "slow kink'' one.
This is due to the fact that close to the base of the flow the ratio
and the instability is slowed down (see Eq. (2)).
Further out, however, the toroidal component of the field also dominates in the frame comoving with the
flow and the instability proceeds faster. At larger distances, practically all the magnetic energy
has been dissipated and the terminal Lorentz factors are very similar in the slow and fast
kink cases.
![]() |
Figure 1:
The bulk Lorentz factor of the flow as a function of radius for different
values of ![]() ![]() |
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The acceleration of the flow and the terminal Lorentz factor depend also on what
fraction of the instability-released energy is radiated away. If the dissipative processes
that appear in the non-linear regime of the evolution of the instability lead to fast
moving electrons, then it is easy to check that they will radiate away most of this energy
through synchrotron (and/or inverse Compton) radiation on a time scale much shorter than the
expansion timescale. If, on the other hand, most of the energy is dissipated to the ions,
then most of it stays in the system as internal energy and accelerates the flow further.
To keep this study fairly general, we have calculated the bulk Lorentz factor of the
flow in the two extreme cases. In the "fast cooling'' case, all the released energy is
radiated away very efficiently, while in the "slow cooling'' case, the energy is assumed
to stay in the flow (practically this means that we set the cooling length parameter
).
In Fig. 2, the bulk Lorentz factor of the flow is plotted for
.
The red curves
correspond to the "fast cooling'' case and the black to the "slow cooling'' one. The asymptotic bulk
Lorentz factor differs substantially in these two cases, showing that a large fraction of the
energy of the flow can in principle be radiated away due to the instability-related dissipative
processes. Furthermore, the acceleration of the flow depends on the jet opening angle and is
faster for narrower jets (see green curves in Fig. 2). This is expected, since for a narrower
opening angle, the Alfvén crossing time across the jet is shorter and so is the instability growth
timescale.
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Figure 2:
The bulk Lorentz factor dependence on the cooling efficiency of the flow and jet opening angles.
The solid curves correspond to the fast kink case while the dashed to the slow kink one.
The black, red and green curves correspond to fast cooling, slow cooling and jet opening angle
of ![]() |
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Another quantity of special interest is the Poynting to matter energy flux ratio as a function of radius. While the flow is initially moderately Poynting flux
dominated, the
drops rapidly as a function of distance and the flow is matter-dominated
at distances
independently of the prescription of
the instability or the cooling timescales. Far enough from the fast magnetosonic point,
practically all the magnetic energy has been transfered to the matter, and the bulk
Lorentz factor saturates.
The thick lines in Fig. 3 show the ratio of the radial to the
toroidal components of the magnetic field. This ratio drops rapidly as a function of
distance showing that
.
So, despite the fact that the
instability grows quickly from the toroidal component of the magnetic field,
this component still dominates over the radial one.
![]() |
Figure 3:
The dependence of the magnetization parameter on the radius
for the different prescriptions of radiative cooling and the instability
timescale. Notice that the flow becomes matter-dominated at distances greater than ![]() |
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Having solved for the dynamics of the flow predicted by our modeling of the kink instability, we turn to the implications of these findings for observations of AGN jets. One highly debated issue is whether the AGN jets are Poynting-flux dominated on pc and kpc scales or not. The case-dependent arguments are reviewed in Sikora et al. (2005), where it is shown that there is no strong observational reason to assume Poynting-flux dominated jets on scales larger than a few pc and that the observed emission on these scales can be understood as energy dissipated in shocks internally in the flow (Sikora et al. 1994; Spada et al. 2001) or due to interaction of the flow with the external medium.
Our model predicts that most of the energy is in the form of kinetic
flux at distances say
cm, where
m9 is a black hole of 109 solar masses. So, on pc scales the
magnetic fields are dynamically insignificant, in agreement with observations.
Further information on the dynamics of AGN jets comes from the shortest variability
timescale in the optical and gamma-ray bands in blazars. This timescale can
be as short as a few days, indicating that most of the non-thermal radiation comes
from a compact region of size
cm (the so-called blazar zone).
On the other hand, polarimetry measurements of the variable optical, infrared and mm
radiation are consistent with a toroidal magnetic field geometry on sub-pc scales
(e.g. Impey et al. 1991; Gabuzda & Sitko 1994; Nartallo et al. 1998).
Since most of the magnetic energy is dissipated on these scales, it is quite probable that the observed radiation is the result of the instability-released energy, provided that the dissipative processes lead to wide enough particle distributions (see also Sikora et al. 2005). However, one cannot exclude the possibility that, within this model, the "blazar zone'' emission is a result of internal shocks. On scales of 1017 cm, the magnetization parameter of the flow is of the order of unity and it is interesting to study the outcome of internal shocks of moderately magnetized plasma. The rich blazar phenomenology may indicate that both these mechanisms (i.e. magnetic dissipation and internal shocks) are at work.
Further constraints on where the acceleration of the flow takes place come from the lack of
bulk-flow Comptonization features in the soft X-rays.
This indicates that
at
(Begelman & Sikora 1987;
Moderski et al. 2003).
This shows that the acceleration process is still going on at these distances. In view of
our results, this could in principle rule out the "fast kink'' case since the acceleration
appears to be too fast and
already at
or so. At this point, however,
the uncertainties in the model are too high to make a strong statement on this issue.
If, for example, the fast point is located at a factor of, say,
3 larger distance,
our results are compatible with the lack of soft X-ray features. Numerical simulations of the instability
are needed so that these issues can be settled (see also discussion in Sect. 5).
The analysis we follow so as to apply the model to GRBs is very similar to that described in the previous sections. The only new ingredient that has to be added is related to the very high luminosities that characterize the GRB jets. As a result, the inner part of the flow is optically thick to electron scattering and matter and radiation are closely coupled. At the photospheric radius the optical depth drops to unity and further out the flow is optically thin. So, the high luminosity introduces a new length scale to the problem that has to be treated in a special way described in the next section.
At the photosphere, the equation of state changes from one dominated by radiation to one dominated by the gas pressure. To connect the two, the radiation emitted at the photosphere has to be taken into account. The amount of energy involved can be substantial, and appears as an (approximate) black body component in the GRB spectrum. It depends on the temperature of the photosphere.
The temperature at the photosphere is
for all
parameter values used so that pairs can be neglected. The photosphere is
then simply defined as (e.g. Abramowicz et al. 1991)
At the photosphere one has to subtract the energy and momentum carried away
by the decoupled radiation. To calculate these
quantities one needs the temperature at the photosphere.
The dimensionless temperature
in the optically
thick region is given by the solution of
At the photosphere we calculate the temperature
and subtract the radiation energy density of a black body
Following the procedure described in the previous section, we have
calculated the bulk Lorentz factor of the flow for different
values of
at the base of the flow and for the two
prescriptions for the timescale of the kink instability (Eqs. (1), (2)).
The fast magnetosonic point is set to R0=108 cm, the jet opening angle
to
,
the initial ratio
and the luminosity
of the flow
.
The results are given in Fig. 4, where it is shown that the flow
reaches terminal Lorentz factors
for
.
The solid curves correspond to the case where the timescale for the kink
instability is given by Eq. (1) (fast kink case) and the dashed to the case
where Eq. (2) is used for the timescale of the growth of the instability
(slow kink case). Notice that the initial acceleration of the flow differs
in the two cases, being much faster in the fast kink case. This is expected
since this case is characterized by rapid dissipation of magnetic
energy and acceleration from the base of the flow, while in the slow kink case
the non-negligible poloidal component of the magnetic field close to r0 slows
down the instability. The terminal Lorentz factors are, however, similar
in the two cases. Notice also that there is a discontinuity in the slope
of the curves
at the location of the photosphere which is a result
of our simplistic approach (for details see previous section).
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Figure 4:
The bulk Lorentz factor of the flow for different ![]() ![]() |
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A second key parameter of the model is the opening angle of the jet.
For smaller opening angles, the instability timescale becomes
shorter and the flow is accelerated faster and to higher terminal
Lorentz factors as is shown in Fig. 5. This implies that
for smaller opening angles, more magnetic energy is dissipated
and the flow is less strongly magnetized at large distances.
This is clearly shown in Fig. 6, where the Poynting to
matter energy flux ratio is plotted as a function of radius r(compare the thin curve with the thick black dashed curves).
Notice that the
curves are discontinuous at the location of
the photosphere. This is caused by our simplified treatment at the
location of the photosphere, where we subtract the energy density
of the radiation field (see previous section) and reduce the internal
enthalpy of the flow, increasing the ratio of Poynting to matter energy
flux. More detailed radiative transfer models of the transition from optically thick
to optically thin condition, predict a rather sharp transition which
indicates that our simple approach does not introduce large
errors.
In Figs. 5 and 6 we have also plotted (see blue curves) the bulk Lorentz factor
and the magnetization
as functions of r for the "typical values'' of the
parameters of the model proposed by Drenkhahn & Spruit (2002, the "AC'' flow). In the context of that
model the magnetic field lines change direction on small scales and magnetic reconnection
dissipates magnetic energy and accelerates the flow. Notice that the non-axisymmetric model predicts
more gradual acceleration and rather higher terminal Lorentz factors (for the same
initial magnetization of the flow) than the current model. Furthermore, it is characterized by
efficient dissipation of the Poynting flux, resulting in negligible magnetization sufficiently far
from the central engine (at least in the case where the non-decayable axisymmetric component
is negligible).
![]() |
Figure 5:
The bulk Lorentz factor of the flow for different jet opening angles ![]() |
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One important point deduced from Fig. 6 is that, for
,
the flow remains Poynting-flux dominated even at large distances away from the
source where deceleration of the outflow because of its interaction
with the interstellar medium or the stellar wind is expected, which means
that the instability is not fast enough to convert most of the
magnetic energy into bulk motion of matter. Afterglow observations
can in principle probe to the magnetic content of the ejecta through early
observations of the reverse shock emission (Fan et al. 2002; Zhang et al. 2003;
Kumar & Panaitescu 2003). Modeling of the
forward and reverse shock emission in cases where quick follow ups were possible
suggests the existence of frozen-in magnetic fields in the ejecta (Kumar & Panaitescu 2003)
that are dynamically important, with
(Zhang & Kobayashi 2005).
Rapid follow-ups in the X-rays, UV and optical are now possible thanks to Swift
satellite and ground based telescopes and can test our
model which predicts a magnetization parameter of the order of unity for the
outflowing material in the afterglow region. The XRT instrument on board Swift
has already provided several early X-ray afterglows (e.g. Tagliaferri et al. 2005; Campana et al.
2005; Burrows et al. 2005). Many of these observations
indicate a slow fading component at times
102-104 s after the GRB trigger (Nowsek et al.
2005; Zhang et al. 2005; Panaitescu et al. 2005) which may be expected by the deceleration
of ejecta with
(Zhang & Kobayashi 2005; Zhang et al. 2005)
in agreement with our model predictions.
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Figure 6:
The magnetization ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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The ratio
is even higher for the range of distances
cm
where internal shocks are expected to happen in the internal shock scenario for GRBs (Rees &
Mészáros 1994; Piran 1999) and is expected the reduce their radiative efficiency.
However, allowing for non-ideal MHD effects in the shocked region, Fan et al. (2004) show that
the radiative efficiency of
plasma may not be much lower than
the
case. On the other hand, since the efficiency of internal
shocks to convert kinetic energy into gamma rays is already low (typically
of the order of a few percent; Panaitescu et al. 1999; Kumar 1999) and observations indicate
much higher radiative efficiency (Panaitescu & Kumar 2002; Lloyd & Zhang 2004), we investigate
the possibility that the energy released by the instability powers the prompt gamma-ray emission.
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Figure 7:
The radiative efficiency of the flow, defined as the ratio of the radiated luminosity
over the luminosity of the flow for different ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() |
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Fixing
,
one can now calculate the radiative efficiency for different
opening angles of the flow. Smaller opening angles result in more magnetic energy
dissipated (by shortening the instability timescale) and therefore
to smaller values of Poynting to matter flux at large distances. This also means
that more energy is radiated away. Although very model dependent, the opening angles
of the GRB jets can be estimated by the achromatic breaks of the afterglow lightcurves
(Rhoads 1997; Sari et al. 1999). For
(a value typically inferred),
the efficiency is quite high and of the order of 20%.
In Fig. 7, the radiative efficiency of the
non-axisymmetric model (Drenkhahn & Spruit 2002) is also shown for different values
of .
The non-axisymmetric model can have a higher radiative efficiency
which is close to
for
(see also Giannios & Spruit 2005,
for more detailed study on the spectra expected from this model).
This work suggests that the kink instability plays a significant role in the dynamics
of magnetized outflows. The instability sets in once the toroidal component of the magnetic
field becomes dominant and drives its energy by
on a short time scale. The energy dissipated
by the instability accelerates the flow and turns it into kinetic flux dominated flow
for AGN jets at distance
and to moderately magnetized flow for GRB jets in the
the afterglow region. If the dissipated magnetic energy is transferred to fast moving
electrons with wide enough energy distribution, then it can power the blazar zone emission
and the prompt GRB emission with high radiative efficiency.
These results have been compared with those that are predicted by other dissipative models (Coroniti 1990; Spruit et al. 2001; Lyubarsky & Kirk 2001; Drenkhahn 2002; Drenkhahn & Spruit 2002). According to these models, if the magnetic field lines change direction on small scales, magnetic energy can be dissipated through reconnection processes. Drenkhahn (2002) and Drenkhahn & Spruit (2002) applied this idea to GRB outflows and showed that efficient acceleration and radiation (as high as 50%) is possible. In the context of this model, most of the magnetic energy is dissipated, resulting in kinetic flux dominated flows at large distances where the flow starts to be decelerated by the external medium. On the other hand, our model predicts moderately magnetized ejecta at this region. Since the initial phase of the afterglow emission depends on the magnetic content of the ejecta (e.g. Lyutikov 2005), these models make different predictions about this phase and can be tested against observations.
This study assumes a radial flow and although this allowed us to minimize the number of free parameters and clarify the role of each of them, it nevertheless leaves a number of issues unsettled. Two important issues are these of jet collimation and of the non-linear evolution of the kink instability. We discuss these issues in the next subsections.
The collimation of MHD outflows is usually believed to take place in the trans-Alfvénic
region because of the "hoop stress'' exerted by the toroidal component of the magnetic
field. One issue that arises is whether the same mechanism is at work in the case where
the kink instability sets in and reduces the strength of .
Our one dimensional approach cannot settle this question; 2-D calculations would be
needed if the instability is parametrized as in the present models. Time dependent, 3-D simulations will be needed if the effects of the instability are to be included realistically,
since the relevant ones are nonaxisymmetric.
Collimation of the flow can be achieved by its interaction with the environment.
This may be the collapsing star in the context of gamma-ray bursts (Woosley 1993) or a large scale
poloidal field in the case of AGN jets (Spruit et al. 1997). Another interesting possibility
is that small scale toroidal fields (probably a result of the development of the instability)
can lead to flow collimation under certain conditions (Li 2002).
The linear evolution of the kink instability is rather well understood and has been studied by linearizing the MHD equations by a number of authors (e.g. Begelman 1998; Appl et al. 2000), which shows that the instability grows on the Alfvén crossing time across the jet. The non-linear evolution of the instability is an issue that cannot be solved with analytical tools and 3-dimensional RMHD simulations that cover many decades of radii are needed to settle this issue. Preliminary numerical investigations have been done (e.g. Lery et al. 2000; Ouyed et al. 2003; Nakamura & Meier 2004) which indicate that the kink instability is an internal mode that does not disrupt the jet. On the other hand, whether it is able to rearrange the magnetic field configuration internally in the flow on the short timescale implied by linear stability analysis is still not clear.
Some intuition on this issue can be gained by this study. We have tried two different
prescriptions for the instability growth time scale, the second of which accounts for its
possible slowing down because of a strong poloidal "backbone'' in the core on the jet
(Ouyed et al. 2003). A non-negligible poloidal component can slow down the
initial growth of the instability; eventually it grows in a conical jet. This occurs
because as the jet expands, the
and Bp scale as 1/r and 1/r2 respectively so as to
satisfy the induction equation. This means that the toroidal component
dominates the poloidal at some point and the instability sets in. A study that assumes a cylindrical jet,
on the other hand, will not deal with the
situation. Since the observed jets
do expand laterally (despite their strong collimation) by many orders in radius from their
launching region to their termination shock, we believe that it is important for numerical
investigations of the role of kink instability to allow for jet expansion to reveal the
characteristics of the non-linear development of the instability.
The limitations of the calculations presented here are obvious from the parameterizations used. One may wonder to what extent these can be overcome in numerical simulations. Since the most relevant instabilities are nonaxisymmetric, such simulations have to be 3-dimensional. The computational expense of 3D MHD simulations puts strong limitations on the kind of calculations that can be done, and the realism of the conclusions that can be drawn from them. An astrophysical jet operates over many decades in length scale, with different physics dominating at different distances from the source.
For reasons of computational feasibility, the 3D simulations that have been done so far use only a small range in distance, or a cylindrical geometry (e.g. Nakamura et al. 2001; Ouyed et al. 2003; Nakamura & Meier 2004). In the first case, the range of distance is too narrow to follow the consequences of 3-D instabilities effectively. In the second case, the effect of instability is limited by the boundaries. It is well known that kink instability can saturate into a finite amplitude, helical equilibrium when confined in a cylinder (in the astrophysical context see e.g. Königl & Choudhuri 1986; Lyubarskii 1999).
But a computational cylinder taylored to the size of the source covers a negligible range in length scales perpendicular to the axis, compared with an actual jet. If, instead, the simulations were done in a spherical or conical geometry, the continued expansion of the flow would stretch these helical configurations perpendicular to the axis, immediately making them unstable again. This is the rationale for our assumption that dissipation by instability will be a process that persists for a large distance along the jet.
It may be possible to make numerical progress in, say, a conical geometry, but limitations due to the finite range in length scales and time scales that can be achieved will remain serious. For this reason, it is important to isolate physical effects that can not (yet) be included realistically in simulations, and explore them in more approximate models like the ones we have presented here.
The standard scenario for jet launching, acceleration and collimation involves large scale magnetic fields anchored to a rotating object (e.g. Blandford & Payne 1982; Sakurai 1985). The flow passes through three critical points, i.e. the slow, the Alfvén and the fast point. At the fast point the ratio of Poynting to matter energy flux is much larger than unity in the case of relativistic jets (Michel 1967; Camenzind 1986; Beskin et al. 1998) while further acceleration of the flow appears hard to achieve within ideal MHD except if the flow is decollimated (Li et al. 1992; Begelman & Li 1994).
In this work, we study how this picture is modified when one takes into account the
fastest growing current driven instability, i.e. the m=1 mode kink instability.
We have modeled the instability by modifying the induction equation to account for non-ideal
MHD processes and solving the relativistic MHD equations in the case of a radial flow.
The instability is driven by ,
dissipates Poynting flux and has been shown to be an efficient
mechanism to accelerate the flow.
The key parameter of the model is the ratio
of the Poynting to matter energy flux
at the base of the flow. A large part of the AGN jet phenomenology can be understood in the
context of this model for
several. On sub-pc scales the flow is
Poynting-flux dominated with
.
The flow is shown to be accelerated fast and to
become matter dominated already at
pc scales, while it reaches terminal bulk factors
of a few tens. The emission at the blazar zone can be a result of either internal shocks
that take place in an unsteady flow, where fast shells catch up with slower ones, converting
a small fraction of the bulk kinetic energy of the flow into radiation (Rees & Mészáros 1994;
Spada et al. 2001), or direct manifestation of the energy released by the instability.
Within the same model, we propose that GRBs are a result of more Poynting
flux dominated outflows with
100. For these values of
the
flow reaches terminal bulk Lorentz factors of the order of a few to several hundreds, while
it remains moderately magnetized (i.e.
)
at the afterglow region region.
Although there is evidence for magnetized ejecta from afterglow modeling (e.g. Kumar &
Panaitescu 2003; Zhang & Kobayashi 2005), more results are anticipated from early afterglow
follow-ups that can test the model.
In the internal shock scenario for the prompt GRB emission, the shells collide at typical distances of 1013-1015 cm, where the flow is moderately Poynting-flux dominated. On the other hand, internal shock and Poynting-flux models exclude each other somewhat. If a strong magnetic field is added to an internally-shocked outflow, the radiative efficiency is further reduced with respect to that expected from the collision of unmagnetized shells (e.g. Fan et al. 2004). At the same time, dissipation in a predominantly magnetic outflow by instability (DC model) or internal reconnection (AC model) can produce radiation naturally at very high efficiency (up to 50%).
Acknowledgements
Giannios acknowledges support from the EU FP5 Research Training Network "Gamma Ray Bursts: An Enigma and a Tool''.