Owner: Lacey Members: 8


Accretion disks and jets in AGN - 22 February, 2007
 Joe says A conversation in the Chat got me thinking about this. How do jets form in active galactic nuclei? I understand why they are in the direction of the angular momentum vector, but how do particles get from the accretion disk to the jets? Wouldn't any particle in the transfer process almost automatically get ejected? Total Topic Karma: 1 - More by this Author
 +1 Karma
good question. could magnetic fields be to blame? if
$
\vec{F}=q\vec{v} x \vec{B}
$

then particles on the outside of the disk of the proper charge would be gradually moved in, where they would accelerate due to orbital dynamics...

but this would require exact parameters to produce a jet. i don't know, i'm just brainstorming
- 22 February, 2007
 +0 Karma
Hmm.. That is an excellent idea. The only thing I'm concerned with is the fact that there are two jets that are usually the same strength. That would mean that there are an equal number of positively and negatively charged particles. I'm not sure if that's a problem, but it does make me wonder.

Like I said in the "Physicist Roll Call" thread, I should be going into an astrophysics PhD program in the fall and this is one of my main interests, so hopefully I'll be able to get something concrete on this subject.
- 22 February, 2007
 +0 Karma
well, positively and negatively charged particles would move in opposite directions under that model, so i don't think it would work. i just read an article that indicated viscosity might be responsible, but i thought that the interstellar medium was too dilute for viscous effects... is that something you've heard of?
- 22 February, 2007
 +0 Karma
Well, when you consider the sort of velocities the polar jets are apparently propagating at, even stuff like cosmic background radiation will heat it up. Also remember that any particles the jet collides with would produce a higher amount of collision energy than in classical models.
- 22 February, 2007
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