The Origin of Matter at the Base of Relativistic Jets in Active Galactic Nuclei

TL;DR

This paper investigates the origins of matter in relativistic jets from active galactic nuclei, focusing on processes near black holes that produce neutral particles which load the jets with charged particles close to the black hole.

Contribution

It explores how processes in hot accretion flows near black holes can generate neutral particles that contribute to jet composition, a novel approach to understanding jet launching.

Findings

Neutral particles can be produced via annihilation and decay in the accretion flow.

These particles may load the jet with mass and charge near the black hole.

Processes near the black hole are crucial for jet composition and dynamics.

Abstract

The generation of relativistic jets in active sources such as blazars is a complex problem with many aspects, most of them still not fully understood. Relativistic jets are likely produced by the accretion of matter and magnetic fields onto spinning black holes. Ergospheric dragging effects launch a Poynting-dominated outflow in the polar directions of these systems. Observations with very high resolution of the jet in the nearby radio galaxy M87 and evidence of extremely fast variability in the non-thermal radiation of several other objects indicate that charged particles produce synchrotron emission and gamma rays very close to the base of the jet. How these particles are injected into the magnetically shielded outflow is a mystery. Here we explore the effects of various processes in the hot accretion inflow close to the black hole that might result in the copious production of neutral particles which, through annihilation and decay in the jet's funnel, might load the outflow with mass and charged particles on scales of a few Schwarzschild radii.