Open AccessInteractions of jets with inhomogeneous cloudy media
Author(s) -
Saxton Curtis J.,
Bicknell Geoffrey V.,
Sutherland Ralph S.,
Midgley Stuart
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
monthly notices of the royal astronomical society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.058
H-Index - 383
eISSN - 1365-2966
pISSN - 0035-8711
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2005.08962.x
Subject(s) - physics , astrophysics , jet (fluid) , radio galaxy , interstellar medium , galaxy , redshift , filling factor , quasar , observable , astrophysical jet , active galactic nucleus , mechanics , optics , quantum mechanics
We present two‐dimensional slab‐jet simulations of jets in inhomogeneous media consisting of a tenuous hot medium populated with a small filling factor by warm, dense clouds. The simulations are relevant to the structure and dynamics of sources such as gigahertz peak spectrum and compact steep spectrum (CSS) radio galaxies, high‐redshift radio galaxies and radio galaxies in cooling flows. The jets are disrupted to a degree depending upon the filling factor of the clouds. With a small filling factor, the jet retains some forward momentum but also forms a halo or bubble around the source. At larger filling factors channels are formed in the cloud distribution through which the jet plasma flows and a hierarchical structure consisting of nested lobes and an outer enclosing bubble results. We suggest that the CSS quasar 3C 48 is an example of a low filling factor jet–interstellar medium interaction while M87 may be an example of the higher filling factor type of interaction. Jet disruption occurs primarily as a result of Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities driven by turbulence in the radio cocoon not through direct jet–cloud interactions, although there are some examples of these. In all radio galaxies whose morphology may be the result of jet interactions with an inhomogeneous interstellar medium we expect that the dense clouds will be optically observable as a result of radiative shocks driven by the pressure of the radio cocoon. We also expect that the radio galaxies will possess faint haloes of radio‐emitting material well beyond the observable jet structure.