A Comparison of the Morphology and Stability of Relativistic and Nonrelativistic Jets

Abstract

We compare results from a relativistic and a nonrelativistic set of two-dimensional axisymmetric jet simulations. For a set of five relativistic simulations that either increase the Lorentz factor or decrease the adiabatic index, we compute nonrelativistic simulations with equally useful power or thrust. We examine these simulations for morphological and dynamical differences, focusing on the velocity field, the width of the cocoon, the age of the jets, and the internal structure of the jet itself. The primary result of these comparisons is that the velocity field of nonrelativistic jet simulations cannot be scaled up to give the spatial distribution of Lorentz factors seen in relativistic simulations. Since the local Lorentz factor plays a major role in determining the total intensity for parsec-scale extragalactic jets, this suggests that a nonrelativistic simulation cannot yield the proper intensity distribution for a relativistic jet. Another general result is that each relativistic jet and its nonrelativistic equivalents have similar ages (in dynamical time units, ≡R/aa, where R is the initial radius of a cylindrical jet and aa is the sound speed in the ambient medium). Also, jets with a larger Lorentz factor have a smaller cocoon size. In addition to these comparisons, we have completed four new relativistic simulations to investigate the effect of varying thermal pressure on relativistic jets. The simulations confirm that faster (larger Lorentz factor) and colder jets are more stable, with smaller amplitude and longer wavelength internal variations. However, an exception to this occurs for the hottest jets, which appear the most stable. The apparent stability of these jets does not follow from linear normal mode analysis, which suggests that there are available growing Kelvin-Helmholtz modes. However, these modes are not excited because of a lack of perturbations able to couple to them. As an example of how these simulations can be applied to the interpretation of observations, we use our results to estimate some parameters of Cygnus A. Although none of these estimates alone can determine if the jets in Cyg A are relativistic or nonrelativistic, estimates for the age and the jet to ambient density ratio confirm values for these parameters estimated by other means.