Monday, July 23, 2012

1207.4949 (Yosuke Mizuno et al.)

Three-Dimensional Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of
Current-Driven Instability. III. Rotating Relativistic Jets
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Yosuke Mizuno, Yuri Lyubarsky, Ken-Ichi Nishikawa, Philip E. Hardee
We have investigated the influence of jet rotation and differential motion on the linear and nonlinear development of the current-driven (CD) kink instability of force-free helical magnetic equilibria via three-dimensional relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations. In this study, we follow the temporal development within a periodic computational box. Displacement of the initial helical magnetic field leads to the growth of the CD kink instability. We find that, in accord with linear stability theory, the development of the instability depends on the lateral distribution of the poloidal magnetic field. If the poloidal field significantly decreases outwards from the axis, the initial small perturbations grow strongly, and if multiple wavelengths are excited non-linear interaction eventually disrupts the initial cylindrical configuration. When the profile of the poloidal field is shallow, the instability develops slowly and eventually saturates. We briefly discuss implications of our findings for Poynting dominated jets.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1207.4949

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