EskWIRED said:Supermassive black holes sometimes have extended relativistic jets emerging from the poles. They are HUGE and powerful and fast.
Has there been research into the mass of such jets? Any other impressive statistics about just how much mass and energy these things contain?
phyzguy said:As I understand, we don't even know whether the energy of the jets is primarily baryonic, primarily leptonic, or primarily electromagnetic field energy.
Mordred said:You might want to think about this statement as the electromagnetic spectrum includes both baryons (photons, neutrons) as well as leptons (electrons) .
What is poorly understood on jets are the conditions that allow jets, when do they occur, what mechanism determine which objects can have jets? How do jet knots form? What % of the infalling matter converts to the energy and angular momentum ejected via the jets.
EskWIRED said:Supermassive black holes sometimes have extended relativistic jets emerging from the poles. They are HUGE and powerful and fast.
Has there been research into the mass of such jets? Any other impressive statistics about just how much mass and energy these things contain?
It is a tiny fraction of the mass of the galaxy, and does not include dark matter.patellar-myotatic said:I want to know if the accumulated mass of the jets could exceed the mass of the galaxy
It does not. That's the point of "rest mass" (usually just called mass). It increases the energy, but not beyond the energy present before.patellar-myotatic said:Relativistic velocity would multiply the rest mass.
If my word "profoundly" is not self-evident, let me elaborate. The ejected mass of the quasar jets have no effect at the center of the galaxy as the two jets presumably are symmetrical, have similar mass and cancel out. However, at any distance radially from the jet axis, their total mass is additive and gravitational "force" towards the axis increases proportional to the mass of the jets within a cylinder of that radius. Only after the expanding cylinder exceeds the total jet diameter does force completely transition to the inverse square law. Don't forget that the jets are conical and up to 14 billion lightyears long, so the width is significant.patellar-myotatic said:I want to know if the accumulated mass of the jets could exceed the mass of the galaxy, and does this ejected mass included dark matter? Relativistic velocity would multiply the rest mass. With enough mass, this would profoundly affect the rotation of the galaxy and reduce reliance on a dark matter halo to explain the outer orbital velocities. If this has not been quantified, it remains a fascinating alternative explanation.
No. Mass increases with relative velocity. Relativistic velocity mass is significant. How is that incorrect? Jet velocities can exceed 0.999c and Lorentz factor of 40. If a modest 5% of the galactic mass were accelerated to 0.999c, the jets would outweigh the remaining galaxy.mfb said:It is a tiny fraction of the mass of the galaxy, and does not include dark matter.It does not. That's the point of "rest mass" (usually just called mass). It increases the energy, but not beyond the energy present before.
Not with the meaning of "mass" that has been in use in the last ~80 years. No one uses the concept of a relativistic mass any more, apart from old textbooks and bad pop-science descriptions. "Mass" is always "rest mass".patellar-myotatic said:Mass increases with relative velocity.
Baryonic matter is a small fraction of the total mass of galaxies. The central black hole is very small compared to the baryonic matter. And the jet mass (and also its energy) finally is small compared to the black hole mass. It has to be, everything else would violate conservation of energy.patellar-myotatic said:Who has measured the accumulated mass of Quasar jets? Without measurements, where do we get any scale?
Why would the distance to a black hole matter for a local interaction?patellar-myotatic said:However, can we already be certain that dark matter has no self-interaction at extreme conditions near a spinning black hole?
At most its mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. Most of that ends up in the black hole, however.patellar-myotatic said:How much energy is available when all the hydrogen falls in from intergalactic-cluster distances?
The mass and energy of a relativistic jet are closely related through Einstein's famous equation, E=mc^2. This equation states that mass and energy are essentially interchangeable, with the speed of light serving as the conversion factor. As a result, a small amount of mass can be converted into a large amount of energy in relativistic jets.
The speed of a relativistic jet has a significant impact on its mass and energy. As an object approaches the speed of light, its mass increases, and so does its energy. This is known as relativistic mass, and it can be calculated using the equation m=m0/√(1-v^2/c^2), where m0 is the object's rest mass, v is its velocity, and c is the speed of light.
A relativistic jet is a high-speed jet of particles traveling at a significant fraction of the speed of light, while a non-relativistic jet travels at much lower speeds. Relativistic jets are typically associated with highly energetic events, such as black holes or supernovae, while non-relativistic jets are often produced by less energetic phenomena, such as pulsars.
Relativistic jets are thought to be formed by the powerful magnetic fields and intense gravitational forces of objects such as black holes or neutron stars. These forces accelerate particles to high speeds, creating the jet of particles that we observe.
Studying relativistic jets can provide valuable insights into the physics of highly energetic events and extreme environments. It can also help us understand the role of magnetic fields and gravity in shaping the universe. Additionally, the study of relativistic jets has practical applications in fields such as astrophysics, plasma physics, and even space propulsion technology.