The impact of flickering variability and magnetisation on the dynamics, stability and morphology of radio-loud AGN jets
Abstract
The physics governing the morphology of radio-loud AGN jets is not fully understood. We investigate how magnetization, flickering jet power and their interplay affects the morphology of radio galaxies. We present a grid of relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations using the PLUTO code covering constant and variable jets with two levels of magnetisation. We find that the constant high magnetisation jets can lead to highly asymmetrical cocoon morphologies, whilst the variable high magnetisation jet can exhibit a broken morphology, caused by a discontinuous jet beam. Our work highlights the importance of magnetisation and variability on the stability and resulting morphology of radio-loud AGN jets, suggesting both are significant factors in addition to jet power or environment. Furthermore, we show that the interaction between magnetisation and variability can lead to the development of localised kink instabilities along the jet beam. Finally, we discuss the effects of hydrodynamic mixing in low magnetisation jets and the role of viewing angle dependence in comparisons between our simulations and observed sources. To facilitate this comparison we present a library of simulated radio images at different times in the simulations and from various viewing angles, which highlight a diverse set of complex morphologies.
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BibTeX
@misc{elley2026impact,
title = {{The impact of flickering variability and magnetisation on the dynamics, stability and morphology of radio-loud AGN jets}},
author = {Emma L. Elley and James H. Matthews and Henry Whitehead and Alex J. Cooper},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = sep,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2605.13469},
eprint = {2605.13469},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.13469},
note = {CC BY-SA 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - The impact of flickering variability and magnetisation on the dynamics, stability and morphology of radio-loud AGN jets
AU - Emma L. Elley
AU - James H. Matthews
AU - Henry Whitehead
AU - Alex J. Cooper
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/09/24
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2605.13469
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2605.13469
AB - The physics governing the morphology of radio-loud AGN jets is not fully understood. We investigate how magnetization, flickering jet power and their interplay affects the morphology of radio galaxies. We present a grid of relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations using the PLUTO code covering constant and variable jets with two levels of magnetisation. We find that the constant high magnetisation jets can lead to highly asymmetrical cocoon morphologies, whilst the variable high magnetisation jet can exhibit a broken morphology, caused by a discontinuous jet beam. Our work highlights the importance of magnetisation and variability on the stability and resulting morphology of radio-loud AGN jets, suggesting both are significant factors in addition to jet power or environment. Furthermore, we show that the interaction between magnetisation and variability can lead to the development of localised kink instabilities along the jet beam. Finally, we discuss the effects of hydrodynamic mixing in low magnetisation jets and the role of viewing angle dependence in comparisons between our simulations and observed sources. To facilitate this comparison we present a library of simulated radio images at different times in the simulations and from various viewing angles, which highlight a diverse set of complex morphologies.
ER -