Magnetohydrodynamic Origin of Jets from Accretion Disks

Abstract

A review is made of recent magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) theory and simulations of origin of jets from accretion disks. Many compact astrophysical objects emit powerful, highly-collimated, oppositely directed jets. Included are the extra galactic radio jets of active galaxies and quasars, and old compact stars in binaries, and emission line jets in young stellar objects. It is widely thought that these different jets arise from rotating, conducting accretion disks threaded by an ordered magnetic field. The twisting of the B field by the rotation of the disk drives the jets by magnetically extracting matter, angular momentum, and energy from the accretion disk. Two main regimes have been discussed theoretically, hydromagnetic winds which have a significant mass flux, and Poynting flux jets where the mass flux is negligible. Over the past several years, exciting new developments on models of jets have come from progress in MHD simulations which now allow the study of the origin -the acceleration and collimation - of jets from accretion disks. Simulation studies in the hydromagnetic wind regime indicate that the outflows are accelerated close to their region of origin whereas the collimation occurs at much larger distances.