Paper detail

Toward a Full MHD Jet Model of Spinning Black Holes--II: Kinematics and Application to the M87 Jet

In this paper, we investigate the magnetohydrodynamical structure of a jet powered by a spinning black hole, where electromagnetic fields and fluid motion are governed by the Grad-Shafranov equation and the Bernoulli equation, respectively. Assuming steady and axisymmetric jet structure, the global solution is uniquely determined with prescribed plasma loading into the jet and the poloidal shape of the outmost magnetic field line. We apply this model to the jet in the center of nearby radio galaxy M87, and we find it can naturally explain the slow flow acceleration and the flow velocity stratification within $10^5$ gravitational radii from the central black hole. In particular, we find the extremal black hole spin is disfavored by the flow velocity measurements, if the plasma loading to the jet is dominated by the electron/positron pair production at the jet base.