The jet feedback mechanism (jfm) in stars, galaxies and clusters

TL;DR

This paper reviews how jets and the bubbles they create influence their surrounding gas across various astrophysical systems through a negative feedback mechanism, affecting galaxy clusters, star formation, and stellar evolution.

Contribution

It synthesizes observational and theoretical evidence for the jet feedback mechanism operating in diverse astrophysical environments, proposing its broader applicability.

Findings

Jets inflate large, hot, low-density bubbles in many systems.

The jet feedback mechanism can regulate accretion and gas content.

Evidence suggests JFM operates in multiple astrophysical contexts.

Abstract

I review the influence jets and the bubbles they inflate might have on their ambient gas as they operate through a negative jet feedback mechanism (JFM). I discuss astrophysical systems where jets are observed to influence the ambient gas, in many cases by inflating large, hot, and low-density bubbles, and systems where the operation of the JFM is still a theoretical suggestion. The first group includes cooling flows in galaxies and clusters of galaxies, star-forming galaxies, young stellar objects, and bipolar planetary nebulae. The second group includes core collapse supernovae, the common envelope evolution, the grazing envelope evolution, and intermediate luminosity optical transients. The suggestion that the JFM operates in these four types of systems is based on the assumption that jets are much more common than what is inferred from objects where they are directly observed. Common to all eight types of systems reviewed here is the presence of a compact object inside an extended ambient gas. The ambient gas serves as a potential reservoir of mass to be accreted on to the compact object. If the compact object launches jets as it accretes mass, the jets might reduce the accretion rate as they deposit energy to the ambient gas, or even remove the entire ambient gas, hence closing a negative feedback cycle.