29 research outputs found
Simulating Electron Transport and Synchrotron Emission in Radio Galaxies: Shock Acceleration and Synchrotron Aging in Three-Dimensional Flows
We present the first three-dimensional MHD radio galaxy simulations that
explicitly model transport of relativistic electrons, including diffusive
acceleration at shocks as well as radiative and adiabatic cooling in smooth
flows. We discuss three simulations of light Mach 8 jets, designed to explore
the effects of shock acceleration and radiative aging on the nonthermal
particle populations that give rise to synchrotron and inverse-Compton
radiations. We also conduct detailed synthetic radio observations of our
simulated objects. We have gained several key insights from this approach: 1.
The jet head in these multidimensional simulations is extremely complex. The
classical jet termination shock is often absent, but motions of the jet
terminus spin a ``shock-web complex'' within the backflowing jet material of
the head. 2. Understanding the spectral distribution of energetic electrons in
these simulations relies partly upon understanding the shock-web complex, for
it can give rise to distributions that confound interpretation in terms of the
standard model for radiative aging of radio galaxies. 3. The magnetic field
outside of the jet itself becomes very intermittent and filamentary in these
simulations, yet adiabatic expansion causes most of the cocoon volume to be
occupied by field strengths considerably diminished below the nominal jet
value. Thus population aging rates vary considerably from point to point.Comment: 44 pages, 6 figures; to be published in the Astrophysical Journal
(August 2001); higher-quality figures can be found at
http://www.msi.umn.edu/Projects/twj/radjet/radjet.htm
Synthetic Observations of Simulated Radio Galaxies I: Radio and X-ray Analysis
We present an extensive synthetic observational analysis of numerically-
simulated radio galaxies designed to explore the effectiveness of conventional
observational analyses at recovering physical source properties. These are the
first numerical simulations with sufficient physical detail to allow such a
study. The present paper focuses on extraction of magnetic field properties
from nonthermal intensity information. Synchrotron and inverse-Compton
intensities provided meaningful information about distributions and strengths
of magnetic fields, although considerable care was called for. Correlations
between radio and X-ray surface brightness correctly revealed useful dynamical
relationships between particles and fields. Magnetic field strength estimates
derived from the ratio of X-ray to radio intensity were mostly within about a
factor of two of the RMS field strength along a given line of sight. When
emissions along a given line of sight were dominated by regions close to the
minimum energy/equipartition condition, the field strengths derived from the
standard power-law-spectrum minimum energy calculation were also reasonably
close to actual field strengths, except when spectral aging was evident.
Otherwise, biases in the minimum- energy magnetic field estimation mirrored
actual differences from equipartition. The ratio of the inverse-Compton
magnetic field to the minimum-energy magnetic field provided a rough measure of
the actual total energy in particles and fields in most instances, within an
order of magnitude. This may provide a practical limit to the accuracy with
which one may be able to establish the internal energy density or pressure of
optically thin synchrotron sources.Comment: 43 pages, 14 figures; accepted for publication in ApJ, v601 n2
February 1, 200
3D Simulations of MHD Jet Propagation Through Uniform and Stratified External Environments
We present a set of high-resolution 3D MHD simulations of steady light,
supersonic jets, exploring the influence of jet Mach number and the ambient
medium on jet propagation and energy deposition over long distances. The
results are compared to simple self-similar scaling relations for the
morphological evolution of jet-driven structures and to previously published 2D
simulations. For this study we simulated the propagation of light jets with
internal Mach numbers 3 and 12 to lengths exceeding 100 initial jet radii in
both uniform and stratified atmospheres.
The propagating jets asymptotically deposit approximately half of their
energy flux as thermal energy in the ambient atmosphere, almost independent of
jet Mach number or the external density gradient. Nearly one-quarter of the jet
total energy flux goes directly into dissipative heating of the ICM, supporting
arguments for effective feedback from AGNs to cluster media. The remaining
energy resides primarily in the jet and cocoon structures. Despite having
different shock distributions and magnetic field features, global trends in
energy flow are similar among the different models.
As expected the jets advance more rapidly through stratified atmospheres than
uniform environments. The asymptotic head velocity in King-type atmospheres
shows little or no deceleration. This contrasts with jets in uniform media with
heads that are slowed as they propagate. This suggests that the energy
deposited by jets of a given length and power depends strongly on the structure
of the ambient medium. While our low-Mach jets are more easily disrupted, their
cocoons obey evolutionary scaling relations similar to the high-Mach jets.Comment: Accepted in ApJ, 32 pages, 18 figures, animations available from:
http://www.msi.umn.edu/Projects/twj/newsite/projects/radiojets/movies
Simulation in 3D of electron transport & emissions in radio galaxies
Abstract. We have developed numerical techniques to treat CR acceleration at shocks in multidimensional MHD simulations of astrophysical objects. These allow us to study production, transport and emissions produced by CRs inside very complex and unsteady flows. Here we report results of 3D supersonic jet simulations designed to model radio galaxy formation. Initial findings demonstrate several important physical points: (1) The flows, including the jets, are highly unsteady. Clear jet termination shocks are uncommon, so that CRs are accelerated more by a complex web of shocks in the flow "head". (2) The energy spectrum of the accelerated CRs is spatially and temporally complex, and not simply the canonical "strong-shock" power law. (3) Magnetic fields within the "backflow cocoon" are highly intermittent, so conventional "aging" models, based on synchrotron losses are not reliable