Properties of Trans-fast Magnetosonic Jets in Black Hole Magnetospheres

• Published in: The Astrophysical journal Vol. 892; no. 1; pp. 37 - 53
• Main Authors: Pu, Hung-Yi, Takahashi, Masaaki
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Philadelphia The American Astronomical Society 20.03.2020; IOP Publishing
• Subjects: Acceleration; Accretion; Accretion disks; Astrophysical black holes; Astrophysics; Black hole physics; Black holes; Computational fluid dynamics; Corona; Energy flux; Fluid flow; Galaxy jets; Inflow; Jets; Kerr black holes; Kinetic energy; Magnetic field configurations; Magnetic fields; Magnetic properties; Magnetism; Magnetohydrodynamics; Magnetospheres; Outflow; Relativistic effects; Relativistic jets; Rotating black holes
• ISSN: 0004-637X; 1538-4357
• DOI: 10.3847/1538-4357/ab77ab

Traveling across several orders of magnitude in distance, relativistic jets from strong gravity regions to asymptotic flat spacetime regions are believed to consist of several general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (GRMHD) processes. We present a semianalytical approach for modeling the global structures of a trans-fast magnetosonic relativistic jet, which should be ejected from a plasma source near a black hole in a funnel region enclosed by dense accreting flow and a disk corona around the black hole. Our model consistently includes the inflow and outflow part of the GRMHD solution along the magnetic field lines penetrating the black hole horizon. After the rotational energy of the black hole is extracted electromagnetically by the negative energy GRMHD inflow, the huge electromagnetic energy flux propagates from the inflow to the outflow region across the plasma source, and in the outflow region, the electromagnetic energy converts to the fluid kinetic energy. Eventually, the accelerated outflow must exceed the fast magnetosonic wave speed. We apply the semianalytical trans-fast magnetosonic flow model to the black hole magnetosphere for both parabolic and split-monopole magnetic field configurations and discuss the general flow properties, that is, jet acceleration, jet magnetization, and the locations of some characteristic surfaces of the black hole magnetosphere. We have confirmed that, at large distances, the GRMHD jet solutions are in good agreement with the previously known trans-fast special relativistic magnetohydrodynamic jet properties, as expected. The flexibility of the model provides a prompt and heuristic way to approximate the global GRMHD trans-fast magnetosonic jet properties.