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Relativistic Alfvén Waves on the jet of BL Lacertae

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2015

Marshall H. Cohen  and
David L. Meier
Marshall H. Cohen
Affiliation:
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena CA 91125, USA email: mhc@astro.caltech.edu
David L. Meier
Affiliation:
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena CA 91125, USA email: mhc@astro.caltech.edu Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena CA 91109, USA email:dmeier@caltech.edu
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Abstract

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The jet of BL Lac displays transverse patterns that propagate downstream superluminally. We suggest that they are transverse Alfvén waves propagating on the longitudinal component of a helical magnetic field. The speed of the wave adds relativistically to the speed of the beam, and the apparent speed of the pattern is greater than the beam speed. Models for the jet and the MHD waves give values for the Lorentz factor of the beam of 3–4.4 and pitch angle of the helical magnetic field of 43° - 65°. These are consistent with other estimates, if the beam and pattern speeds are allowed to differ.

Keywords

BL Lacertae objects: individual (BL Lacertae)galaxies: activegalaxies: jetsmagnetohydrodynamics (MHD)polarizationwaves
Type
Contributed Papers
Information
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union , Volume 10 , Issue S313: Extragalactic jets from every angle , September 2014 , pp. 147 - 152
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2015 

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