Jet Formation and Dynamics: Comparison of Quasars and Microquasars
Wolfgang Kundt;
Quasars and Microquasars share the following properties: (i) They have similar, elongated morphologies – reminiscent of being driven by supersonic beams – consisting of cores, knots, and heads, with jet-opening angles ≲ 10-2, and no beam branching;(ii) core/lobe power ratios of 102 ± 2; (iii) fluctuating, broad and hard core spectra; (iv) (occasional) sidedness; (v) (occasional) superluminal growth.In all cases, the central engine is thought to be a rotating magnet whose reconnecting magnetic fields generate the relativistic pair plasma – of typical Lorentz factor 103 ± 2 – which rams the jet channels and blows the cocoons (subsonically) after having been stalled in a head. The supersonic jets form on passing a central deLaval China magnets nozzle, first proposed by Blandford and Rees in 1974, which forms naturally due to the huge density contrast of 10-8.3 T 4 with respect to the ambient medium (of temperature T, T4:=T/104 K). Beam stability and narrowness are likewise guaranteed by the density contrast (of jet fluid and CSM). Observed are both the (thermal) radiation of the rammed channel-wall material, and the synchrotron radiation of the deflected beam particles.
