Formation of relativistic MHD jets: stationary state solutions & numerical simulations

We discuss numerical results of relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) jet formation models. We first review some examples of stationary state solutions treating the collimation and acceleration process of relativistic MHD jets. We provide an a posteriori check for the MHD condition in highly magnetized flows, namely the comparison of particle density to Goldreich-Julian density. Using the jet dynamical parameters calculated from the MHD model we show the rest-frame thermal X-ray spectra of the jet, from which we derive the overall spectrum taking into account a variation of Doppler boosting and Doppler shift of emission lines along the outflow. Finally, we present preliminary results of relativistic MHD simulations of jet formation demonstrating the acceleration of a low velocity (0.01c) disk wind to a collimated high velocity (0.8c).Comment: 6 pp, 5 figs; Invited talk at High Energy Processes in Relativistic Jets, Dublin, 2007, in pres

Ion: Plato’s Defense of Poetry

This reading of Plato's Ion shows that the philosophic action mimed and engendered by the dialogue thoroughly reverses its (and Plato's) often supposed philosophical point, revealing that poetry is just as defensible as philosophy, and only in the same way. It is by Plato's indirections we find true directions out: the war between philosophy and poetry is a hoax on Plato's part, and a mistake on the part of his literalist readers. The dilemma around which the dialogue moves is false, and would have been recognized as such by Plato's contemporaries. Further, it is intrinsically related to a false, but popular, view of language. So the way out of the false dilemma of the dialogue is the way out of the war between philosophy and poetry, and also makes one see what is false about the view of language which makes such war plausible

Acceleration and collimation of relativistic MHD disk winds

We perform axisymmetric relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations to investigate the acceleration and collimation of jets and outflows from disks around compact objects. The fiducial disk surface (respectively a slow disk wind) is prescribed as boundary condition for the outflow. We apply this technique for the first time in the context of relativistic jets. The strength of this approach is that it allows us to run a parameter study in order to investigate how the accretion disk conditions govern the outflow formation. Our simulations using the PLUTO code run for 500 inner disk rotations and on a physical grid size of 100x200 inner disk radii. In general, we obtain collimated beams of mildly relativistic speed and mass-weighted half-opening angles of 3-7 degrees. When we increase the outflow Poynting flux by injecting an additional disk toroidal field into the inlet, Lorentz factors up to 6 are reached. These flows gain super-magnetosonic speed and remain Poynting flux dominated. The light surface of the outflow magnetosphere tends to align vertically - implying three relativistically distinct regimes in the flow - an inner sub-relativistic domain close to the jet axis, a (rather narrow) relativistic jet and a surrounding subrelativistic outflow launched from the outer disk surface - similar to the spine-sheath structure currently discussed for asymptotic jet propagation and stability. The outer subrelativistic disk wind is a promising candidate for the X-ray absorption winds that are observed in many radio-quiet AGN.Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures; accepted for publication in ApJ; incorporates changes according to refere