Disk Winds, Jets, and Outflows: Theoretical and Computational Foundations

TL;DR

This paper reviews the theoretical and computational foundations of disk winds, jets, and outflows, discussing their origins, interactions, and observational confirmations across various astrophysical contexts.

Contribution

It synthesizes recent advances in modeling and understanding the physics of jets and outflows, highlighting universal mechanisms and observational validations.

Findings

Predictions about jet kinematics, collimation, and rotation confirmed by observations.

Disk winds are universal, applicable to massive star and brown dwarf formation.

Theoretical models connect accretion processes with jet launching and evolution.

Abstract

We review advances in the theoretical and computational studies of disk winds, jets and outflows including: the connection between accretion and jets, the launch of jets from magnetized disks, the coupled evolution of jets and disks, the interaction of magnetized young stellar objects with their surrounding disks and the relevance to outflows, and finally, the link between jet formation and gravitational collapse. We also address the predictions that the theory makes about jet kinematics, collimation, and rotation, that have recently been confirmed by high spatial and spectral resolution observations. Disk winds have a universal character that may account for jets and outflows during the formation of massive stars as well as brown dwarfs.