A Numerical Study of the Impact of Jet Magnetic Topology on Radio Galaxy Evolution

The propagation of active galactic nucleus jets depends both on the environment into which they propagate and on their internal structure. To test the impact that different magnetic topologies have on the observable properties of radio galaxies on kpc scales, we conducted a series of magneto-hydrodynamic simulations of jets injected with different magnetic field configurations propagating into a gaseous atmosphere modeled on the Perseus cluster. The simulations show that the structure of the field affects the collimation and propagation of the jets on cluster scales and thus the morphology of the radio lobes inflated by the jets, due both to magnetic collimation and the development of dynamical instabilities in jets with different magnetic topologies. In all cases, the simulations show a distinct reversal of the sychrotron spectral age gradient in the radio lobes about a dynamical time after the jets turn off due to large scale circulation inside the radio lobe, driven primarily by buoyancy, which could provide a way to constrain the age of radio sources in cluster environments without the need for detailed spectral modeling and thus constrain the radio mode feedback efficiency. We suggest a robust diagnostic to search for such age gradients in multi-frequency radio data.
Comment: Accepted for publication in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society