Shock corrugation to the rescue of the internal shock model in microquasars: The single-scale MHD view

TL;DR

This paper investigates how shock corrugation in inhomogeneous plasma shells can enhance energy dissipation and particle acceleration in astrophysical jets, offering new insights into internal shock models in microquasars.

Contribution

It introduces the concept that shock corrugation in initially inhomogeneous shells can revive particle acceleration in relativistic magnetized shocks, challenging previous flat shock assumptions.

Findings

Radiative power is moderately increased in corrugated shocks.

Downstream magnetic field decay influences polarization properties.

Corrugated shocks can enhance energy dissipation in jets.

Abstract

Questions regarding energy dissipation in astrophysical jets are open to date, despite of numerous attempts to limit the diversity of models. Some of the most popular models assume that energy is transferred to particles via internal shocks, which develop as a consequence of non-uniform velocity of the jet matter. In this context, we study the structure and energy deposition of colliding plasma shells, focusing our attention on the case of initially inhomogeneous shells. This leads to formation of distorted (corrugated) shock fronts -- a setup that has recently been shown to revive particle acceleration in relativistic magnetized perpendicular shocks. Our studies show that the radiative power of the far downstream of non-relativistic magnetized perpendicular shocks is moderately enhanced with respect to the flat shock cases. Based on the decay rate of downstream magnetic field, we make predictions for multiwavelength polarization properties.