Two-Temperature Magnetohydrodynamics Simulations of Propagation of Semi-Relativistic Jets

Abstract

In astrophysical jets observed in active galactic nuclei and in microquasars, the energy exchange rate by Coulomb collision is insufficient for thermal equilibrium between ions and electrons. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the difference between the ion temperature and the electron temperature. We present the results of two-temperature magnetohydrodynamics(MHD) simulations to demonstrate the effects of Coulomb coupling. It is assumed that the thermal dissipation heats only ions. We find that the ion and electron temperatures are separated through shocks. Since the ion entropy is increased by energy dissipation at shocks and the Coulomb collisions are inefficient, electron temperature becomes about 10 times lower than the ion temperature in the hotspot ahead of the jet terminal shock. In the cocoon, electron temperature decreases by gas mixing between high temperature cocoon gas and low temperature shocked-ambient gas even when we neglect radiative cooling, but electrons can be heated through collisions with ions. Radiation intensity maps are produced by post processing numerical results. Distributions of the thermal bremsstrahlung radiation computed from electron temperature have bright filament and cavity around the jet terminal shock.

Keywords

• astrophysical jets
• magnetohydrodynamics (MHD)
• numerical simulation