Kink instability as a particle acceleration mechanism in X-ray binaries and the connection to the outburst cycle

@misc{elley2026kink,
  title = {{Kink instability as a particle acceleration mechanism in X-ray binaries and the connection to the outburst cycle}},
  author = {Emma L. Elley and James H. Matthews and Alex J. Cooper and Fraser J. Cowie and Rob Fender},
  howpublished = {arXiv},
  year = {2026},
  month = sep,
  doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2609.25842},
  eprint = {2609.25842},
  archivePrefix = {arXiv},
  url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.25842},
  note = {CC BY-SA 4.0},
}

TY  - UNPB
TI  - Kink instability as a particle acceleration mechanism in X-ray binaries and the connection to the outburst cycle
AU  - Emma L. Elley
AU  - James H. Matthews
AU  - Alex J. Cooper
AU  - Fraser J. Cowie
AU  - Rob Fender
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/09/22
PB  - arXiv
DO  - 10.48550/arxiv.2609.25842
UR  - https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.25842
AB  - We consider whether the kink instability can explain particle acceleration in hard state 'compact' X-ray binary jets. We apply a 1D model to assess the expected growth rate of the instability for a variety of jet models, then scale results from simulations to estimate a dissipation rate for the magnetic energy in the jet. We then consider the effects of radiative cooling on the system. We find that hard state 'compact' X-ray binary jets are likely to be unstable to the kink instability within their acceleration zones across a plausible parameter space. We further find that depending on the parameters of the model, the jets may radiate over a variety of length scales ranging from length scales attributable to a 'failed' jet scenario, to those in keeping with resolved radio observations of 'compact' jets. We discuss the expected evolution of this model through the outburst cycle.
ER  -