Magnetic energy dissipation in force-free jets

Choudhuri, Arnab Rai (1986) Magnetic energy dissipation in force-free jets. In: Astrophysical Journal, 310 (1). pp. 96-103.

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Abstract

It is shown that a magnetic-pressure-dominated, supersonic jet which expands (or contracts) in response to variations in the confining external pressure can dissipate magnetic energy through field-line reconnection as it relaxes to a minimum-energy configuration. In order for a continuous dissipation to take place, the effective reconnection time must be a fraction ɛ ⪉ 1 of the expansion time. The amount of energy dissipation is calculated, and it is concluded that magnetic energy dissipation could, in principle, power the observed synchrotron emission in extragalactic radio jets such as NGC 6251. However, this mechanism is only viable if the reconnection time is substantially shorter than the nominal resistive tearing time in the jet.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	Astrophysical Journal
Publisher:	Institute of physics
Additional Information:	Copyright for this article belongs to Institute of physics.
Department/Centre:	Division of Physical & Mathematical Sciences > Physics
Date Deposited:	19 Feb 2010 11:09
Last Modified:	19 Sep 2010 05:55
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/25653

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