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E. Choi, P. J. Wiita (GSU), D. Ryu (Chungnam National Univ.)
Using a newly developed special relativistic hydrodynamic code, we study the three-dimensional hydrodynamic interactions of relativistic extragalactic jets with two-phase ambient media. These jets propagate through a denser gas and then strike clouds with densities 100 to 1000 times higher than initial beam density. Jets with high Mach numbers can temporarily be deflected by almost 90 degrees and can eventually be slightly bent after they cross the dense cloud. On the other hand, low Mach number jets also can be temporarily deflected by less than 90 degrees, but we have not observed permanently bent structures. To compare our simulations with observed extragalactic radio jets, we compute the approximate surface distributions of radio emission at different viewing angles. These surface brightness maps show jets interacting with clouds can produce emission knots similar to structures observed in many VLBI-scale radio sources. Implications for the triggering of extensive star formation by such jet-cloud interactions on larger scales are also being investigated.
This work was supported in part by NSF grant AST 0507529.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 37 #4
© 2005. The American Astronomical Soceity.