Spatial Growth of the Current-Driven Instability in Relativistic Jets

We have investigated the influence of velocity shear and a radial density profile on the spatial development of the current driven kink instability along helically magnetized relativistic jets via three-dimensional relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations. In this study, we use a non-periodic computational box, the jet flow is initially established across the computational grid, and a precessional perturbation at the inlet triggers growth of the kink instability. If the velocity shear radius is located inside the characteristic radius of the helical magnetic field, a static non-propagating current driven kink is excited as the perturbation propagates down the jet. Temporal growth disrupts the initial flow across the computational grid not too far from the inlet. On the other hand, if the velocity shear radius is outside the characteristic radius of the helical magnetic field, the kink is advected with the flow and grows spatially down the jet. In this case flow is maintained to much larger distances from the inlet. The effect of different radial density profiles is more subtle. When the density increases with radius, the kink appears to saturate by the end of the simulation without apparent disruption of the helical twist. This behavior suggests that relativistic jets consisting of a tenuous spine surrounded by a denser medium with a velocity shear radius outside the radius of maximum toroidal magnetic field have a relatively stable configuration.
Comment: 31 pages, 8 figures, and 2 tables, accepted for publication in ApJ