Determining the jet poloidal B field and black-hole rotation directions in AGNs

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dc.contributor.authorGabuzda, Denise
dc.date.accessioned2018-02-20T13:24:12Z
dc.date.available2018-02-20T13:24:12Z
dc.date.issued2018
dc.description.abstractIt is theoretically expected that active galactic nucleus (AGN) jets should carry helical magnetic (B) fields, which arise due to the rotation of the central black hole and accretion disk combined with the jet outflow. The direction of the toroidal component of the helical B field Bφ is determined by the direction of the poloidal component Bp of the initial seed field that is “wound up” and the direction of rotation of the central black hole and accretion disk. The presence of the jet’s helical B field can be manifest both through the presence of Faraday rotation gradients across the jet, and the presence of appreciable circular polarization, which comes about when linearly polarized emission from the far side of the jet is partially converted to circularly polarized emission as it passes through the magnetized plasma at the front side of the jet on its way towards the observer. When both of these properties are manifest, they can be used jointly with the jet linear polarization structure to uniquely determine both the direction of Bp and the direction of the central rotation. This technique has been applied to 12 AGNs. The results indicate statistically equal numbers of outward and inward Bp and of clockwise (CW) and counter-clockwise (CCW) rotations of the central black holes on the sky. However, they suggest that the directions of Bp and of the central rotation are coupled: CW/CCW central rotation is preferentially associated with inward/outward poloidal B field. This leads to a preferred orientation for the toroidal B-field component corresponding to inward current along the jeten
dc.description.statusPeer revieweden
dc.description.versionPublished Versionen
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.articleid9
dc.identifier.citationGabuzda, D. (2018) 'Determining the jet poloidal B field and black-hole rotation directions in AGNs', Galaxies, 6(1), 9 (6pp). doi: 10.3390/galaxies6010009en
dc.identifier.doi10.3390/galaxies6010009
dc.identifier.endpage6
dc.identifier.issn2075-4434
dc.identifier.issued1
dc.identifier.journaltitleGalaxiesen
dc.identifier.startpage1
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10468/5501
dc.identifier.volume6
dc.language.isoenen
dc.publisherMDPI AGen
dc.relation.urihttp://www.mdpi.com/2075-4434/6/1/9
dc.rights© 2018, the Author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).en
dc.rights.urihttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
dc.subjectActive galactic nucleien
dc.subjectRelativistic jetsen
dc.subjectMagnetic fieldsen
dc.subjectRadio interferometryen
dc.titleDetermining the jet poloidal B field and black-hole rotation directions in AGNsen
dc.typeArticle (peer-reviewed)en
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