Formation of Limb-brightened Radio Jets by Angle-dependent Energy Extraction from Rapidly Rotating Black Holes

Abstract

Using general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations, it has been suggested that the rotational energy of a rapidly rotating black hole (BH) is preferentially extracted along the magnetic field lines threading the event horizon in the middle and lower latitudes. Applying this angle-dependent Poynting flux to the jet downstream, we demonstrate that the jets exhibit limb-brightened structures at various viewing angles, as observed from Mrk 501, M87, and Cyg A between 5° and 75°, and that the limb brightening is enhanced when the jet is collimated strongly. It is also found that the jet width perpendicular to the propagation direction shrinks at the projected distance of the altitude where the jet collimates from a conical shape (near the BH) to a parabolic one (in the jet). Comparing with Very Long Baseline Interferometry observations, we show that this collimation takes place within the deprojected altitude of 100 Schwarzschild radii from the BH in the case of the M87 jet.

Keywords

• Kerr black holes
• General relativity
• Plasma astrophysics
• High energy astrophysics
• Relativistic jets
• Astronomical simulations