Astrophysical Jets E N C Y C LO P E D IA O F A S T R O N O M Y AN D A S T R O P H Y S I C S

Astrophysical Jets
There are many circumstances in astronomy when gas
is found to circulate around a central gravitating mass.
This happens in BINARY STARS, where one component is a
compact object—white dwarf, neutron star or black hole—
and mass is transferred from the normal stellar companion.
It happens in the nuclei of galaxies, where the gravitating
object is a massive black hole and it also happens during
the earliest phases of evolution of a protostar. These gas
flows are called ACCRETION DISKS and they are frequently
accompanied by rapid outflows, launched in antiparallel
directions, roughly perpendicular to the disks. The
outflows are usually called jets and this article describes
some of what we know about them.
The first example of an astrophysical jet was
discovered by HEBER CURTIS in 1918 using the Lick
Observatory in California. He observed the galaxy known
as M87 in the Virgo cluster of galaxies and, when he
inspected the nucleus, he found a ‘curious straight ray. . .
apparently connected with the nucleus by a thin line
of matter’. This was a remarkable observation (by a
remarkable astronomer), and the jet in M87 is still one of
the most carefully studied of this class of objects (figure 1).
What we observe directly in M87 is a fairly straight
feature, some 2 kpc in length. It can be seen from long radio
wavelengths to high-energy x-rays and is found to exhibit
about eight regions of high intensity, known as ‘knots’,
along its length. The jet can be traced down to a scale size
of order 0.01 pc which is smaller than 10−5 times its total
length and less than 100 times the radius of the black hole
that has been found to lie in the nucleus of M87, and whose Figure 2. HH 111. Protostellar jets emerging from a young
mass is measured to be about 3 billion solar masses (see star—one member of a triple system observed using Hubble
M87: THE NUCLEUS AND JET. Space Telescope. The jets are over 10 light years in length. The
We know that the gas is flowing away from the bright knots are probably associated with shock waves formed
black hole in M87 because we can use very long baseline when faster moving gas runs into slower gas.
interferometry to measure its speed. What is found is
that some parts of the jet appear to be moving outward
with a speed that appears to be as much as six times faster away from us, it will appear to be faint. This explains
than the speed of light. This is actually quite a common why we are only able to detect one jet in M87 and why a
phenomenon called superluminal expansion. It does not high proportion of the brightest sources that we see exhibit
SUPERLUMINAL MOTION.
violate the special theory of relativity (which stipulates
that all material motion occurs slower than the speed Let us now turn to the knots. These are believed
of light). Instead, superluminal expansion is an illusion to be shock waves formed in the outflowing jets when,
which only requires that the gas in the jet moves towards for example, the jet speed at the source increases by an
us with a speed close to that of light. For this reason, jets amount greater than the speed of sound in the jet and
like that in M87 are often styled relativistic jets. It is quite therefore faster than the speed with which information
natural that these jets move with speeds close to that of can be transmitted by the moving jet fluid. A strong
light; after all this is the escape velocity from the central shock discontinuity must eventually form in the flow and
black hole. this turns out to be an excellent site for accelerating high-
The jet in M87 exhibits another common property of energy, relativistic electrons with energies up to 100 TeV.
these objects in that its antiparallel counter jet, which is These electrons radiate by spiralling in the magnetic field
expected to be present, has not yet been detected. This is an that permeates the jet—a process known as SYNCHROTRON
illustration of an effect called ABERRATION. When a source of RADIATION—and this is thought to be responsible for the
radiation moves at near light speed, it will appear to beam entire radio through x-ray emission.
its emission along its direction of motion. Consequently, M87’s jet is relatively weak. We know so much about
if the source happens to be approaching us, then it will it because it is so close. In the past, it was almost surely
appear to be very bright, whereas, if the source moves supplied with gaseous fuel at a far higher rate than at

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Astrophysical Jets
Figure 1. Radio and optical maps of the jet observed emerging from the nucleus of the nearby elliptical galaxy M87. The jet can be
traced down to a distance smaller than 100 times the size of the central black hole.
present. It would then have been classified as a QUASAR.
Quasars are the hyperactive nuclei of very distant galaxies
that can outshine their stellar hosts at optical wavelengths.
They emit prodigiously throughout the electromagnetic
spectrum. Quasars often exhibit giant, double, radio
sources—two ‘lobes’ of intense radio emission located on
opposite sides of the galaxy. Historically, this was the way
in which quasars were originally identified. For a long
while there was a mystery as to how these radio lobes could
be formed and sustained. With the discovery of relativistic
jets, the mystery was solved. The source of their power is
the central black hole and the accretion disk that surrounds
it. This creates relativistic particles and magnetic field
which flow outward, along two antiparallel directions to
replenish the radio lobes and to propel them away from
the galaxy, rather like the exhausts that are associated with
automobiles and jet aircraft. In some sense, the jets carry
away the waste products of accretion onto a black hole. We
know of thousands of these double radio sources and have
documented their properties so that we are beginning to
understand how they fit into an evolutionary sequence.
The most powerful relativistic jets, that are beamed
almost directly at us, are sometimes called BLAZARS and
these are commonly observed as γ -ray sources. Photons,
with energies as high as several GeV, are formed when
an x-ray photon is scattered by a relativistic electron—
a process known as inverse Compton scattering. (In a
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few local examples, it has been possible to detect very-
high-energy γ -rays with TeV energies that are probably
produced close to the central black hole.) The surprisingly
large intensity of these γ -ray jets tells us that, in many
instances, they are transporting away a large fraction of the
total power generated by the central black hole engines.
Not all jets are associated with distant galaxies. There
are many stellar-sized black holes that have been found in
our Galaxy and in nearby galaxies. When these have stellar
companions that can lose gas, the gas will be attracted by
the black hole and can also form an accretion disk. An
early example was the source SS433 where two precessing
antiparallel jets moving with speed just over a quarter the
speed of light have been found. In some instances, these
sources also produce relativistic jets, small-scale versions
of the extragalactic radio sources. They exhibit giant
outbursts, superluminal expansion and beaming and, as
a result, are sometimes called ‘microquasars’. These
are particularly good to study because astronomers can
observe many cycles of variation in the time it takes a
quasar to change.
Jets have also been found associated with newly
formed stars. Here, again there is an orbiting disk
made of the gas that has not yet settled onto the star
(or condensed into planets), These ‘YOUNG STELLAR OBJECTS’
are observed primarily in optical and infrared emission
lines and the jet moves with speeds of several hundred
2
Fluid Dynamics
Fluid Dynamics
Fluid dynamics is a subfield of continuum mechanics
which deals with the theory of motion of a fluid
(hydrodynamics) or gas (gas dynamics).
Fluid dynamics is studied theoretically, experimen-
tally and by means of numerical simulations. The
phenomena of fluid motion are governed by well known
continuum laws of physics: the conservation of mass, mo-
mentum and energy. Whether these continuum laws ac-
curately describe a given physical system depends both
on the mechanical and thermodynamic state of the sys-
tem (i.e. its density, temperature, etc) and on the kind and
strength of the interaction of its constituents (e.g. the scat-
tering rate of gas particles). The matter of astrophysical
objects (e.g. of a star or galaxy) can often be approximated
as a gas or fluid, i.e. the equations of fluid dynamics are
adequate to describe the astrophysical phenomena. Here-
after, for simplification, the word fluid will be used as a
synonym for both fluid and gas.
The conservation laws describing the motion of a fluid
can be formulated as set of nonlinear partial differential
equations. Analytic solutions of this set of equations only
exist for simplified highly symmetric flow problems, and
the mathematical theory is often difficult. For this reason,
observations of fluid motion in nature, in the laboratory
and with computers are also essential for understanding
the motion and behavior of fluids.
In astrophysics the numerical tool is often the only
one available to the researcher. Moreover, as most
astrophysical conditions are inaccessible in the laboratory,
and as astrophysical fluid motion may occur on time
scales long compared with the lifespan of humans or
deep inside astrophysical objects, numerical simulation
is the only means to study such fluid motion. The
study of astrophysical fluid flows is further complicated
by the effects of self-gravity, which must be considered
in many astrophysical flow problems, by the enormous
range of length scales and time scales to be covered
in the simulations, and by a variety of other physical
effects which must be taken into account frequently.
The latter include radiation transport (of photons and
neutrinos), heat conduction, radiative cooling, ionization
and recombination of atoms, magnetic fields, energy
generation by thermonuclear reactions, flow velocities
near the speed of light and in strong gravitational fields,
and the properties of dense matter.
Applicability of fluid dynamics
Two requirements must be fulfilled in order for the
continuum approximation of fluid dynamics to hold.
Firstly, one has to assume that the microscopic
behavior of single particles can be neglected. This requires
that λ
L, where λ is the collisional mean free path
of the particles and L is a characteristic macroscopic
linear dimension of the system, or a scale over which
the distribution function varies significantly. If the above
equation holds, the concept of a fluid element can be
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introduced, the linear size of the fluid element being small
compared with L but large compared with λ. This implies
that the number of particles in the fluid element is large,
and hence mean physical quantities, like, for example, the
fluid density ρ or the fluid velocity v can be defined for
the fluid element. The velocity of the individual particles
is then given by u = v + w, i.e. it possesses a random
component w above the mean. Because λ
L, however,
the particles only perform a random walk about the mean
motion v , and consequently the fluid element remains
well defined during the evolution except for some small
loss of particles near its surface, which, if necessary, can
be well described by an additional diffusion term in the
hydrodynamic equations.
Secondly, the forces between particles must be
saturating or ‘short range’, because otherwise collective
effects must be taken into account. Formally this can
be expressed by the requirement that the energy per
particle E/N must approach some constant value when the
number of particles tends to infinity. For a fluid element
with volume V one can then define an energy density
ε ≡ E/V = n(E/N) where n ≡ N/V is the number density,
and a pressure p = n(∂ε/∂n) − ε exerted on the ‘walls’
confining the fluid element. Examples of non-saturating
forces are gravity and electromagnetic forces which both
scale as (∼ r −2 ). Consequently, gravity must be included
in the hydrodynamic equations as a macroscopic external
force. Although electromagnetic forces are long range
too, they saturate in electrically neutral systems due to
screening.
Equations of fluid dynamics
The equations of fluid dynamics can be derived by a
phenomenological approach or within the framework of
the KINETIC THEORY. In the phenomenological approach one
postulates certain relations between stress and rate of
strain and between heat flux and temperature gradient and
develops the fluid dynamic equations from the universal
laws of conservation of mass, momentum and energy.
The required constants of proportionality between stress
and rate of strain and between heat flux and temperature
gradient are called transport coefficients and must be
determined experimentally.
The equation that results from requiring the conserva-
tion of mass in a fluid flow is called the continuity equation.
The conservation of momentum law or Newton’s second
law applied to a fluid yields a vector equation known as the
Navier–Stokes equation. The First Law of Thermodynamics
or the conservation of energy law imply a fluid dynamic
equation which is called the energy equation.
In the kinetic theory approach the fluid dynamic
equations are derived from the Liouville equation by
defining the transport coefficients in term of certain
integral relations which involve the dynamics of colliding
particles. The drawback to this approach is that the
interparticle forces must be specified in order to evaluate
the collision integrals. Both the phenomenological
approach and the kinetic theory approach yield the
1
Fluid Dynamics
same fluid dynamic equations provided equivalent
assumptions are made during their derivations.
Mathematically speaking the five fluid dynamic
equations form a set of coupled nonlinear partial
differential equations which are of first order in time and
of second order in space. They describe the evolution of
mass density ρ, momentum density ρ v and (total) energy
density e in time and space. In addition to the evolution
equations, it is necessary to supply a relationship between
fluid properties in order to close the system of equations.
The equation of state is an example of such a relationship.
It relates the thermodynamic variables pressure p, density
ρ and temperature T or internal energy density ε.
In many astrophysical applications of fluid dynamics,
additional equations and/or additional source terms have
denotes
to be considered, which for example describe composition
changes and energy generation due to nuclear reactions,
the diffusive transport of matter or radiation (diffusion
equation), magnetic fields and their coupling to matter
(magnetohydrodynamics), the evolution of radiation
fields and their interaction with matter (radiation
hydrodynamics), and self-gravity. Moreover, in certain
applications the conservation equations have to be
formulated consistently with SPECIAL or GENERAL RELATIVITY.
Form of the equations
Here the equations of fluid dynamics are given without
derivation. The various quantities appearing in the
equations below are defined as follows: u = v + w is
the particle velocity, v the average fluid velocity, w the
statistical fluctuation around the mean flow, ρ is the fluid
density, ρ v is the fluid momentum, and ρε (erg cm−3 ) is
the kinetic energy density about the mean motion (i.e. the
internal energy), respectively.
The continuity equation
∂ρ
+ div(ρ v ) = 0
∂t
describes the conservation of mass, the Navier–Stokes
equation of motion
∂
(ρ v ) + div(ρ v ⊗ v ) + div = −ρgrad
∂t
describes the transport of (relative) momentum in the flow.
The total energy equation (assuming that the particles have
no internal degrees of freedom)

 
 
∂ ρ 2 ρ 2
|v | + ρε + div |v | + ρε v
∂t 2 2
+ divh + div(v ) = −ρ v grad
finally describes the conservation of energy.  ≡ ρ w ⊗ w
v and the sound speed cs , is the parameter characterizing
is the pressure tensor, from which one usually separates
out the trace of the symmetric dyadic w ⊗ w, i.e. one writes
 = PI − π
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where
P ≡ 13 ρ |w|2
is the isotropic fluid (or gas) pressure
π ≡ ρ 13 |w|2 I − w ⊗ w
is the viscous stress tensor and I is the unit tensor.
ε ≡ 12 |w|2
is the specific internal energy (erg g−1 ), and
h ≡ ρ w 12 |w|2
is the conduction heat flux. The operator
an average over the one-particle Boltzmann distribution
function.
In the absence of viscosity the Navier-Stokes equation
reduces to the Euler equation
∂
(ρ v ) + div(ρ v ⊗ v ) + grad P = −ρgrad.
∂t
For the special case of an adiabatic flow the total energy
equation reduces to the simpler form
∂e
+ div[(e + P )v ] = −ρ v grad
∂t
where e = 12 ρ|v |2 +ρε is the total energy density (erg cm−3 ).
Flow regimes
Fluid flows can be uniquely classified into different flow
regimes depending on the value of certain characteristic
dimensionless flow parameters. Different flows having
the same dimensionless flow parameters are called similar.
Depending on the degree of compressibility of a fluid
under forces acting on it, it can be treated as either being
incompressible or compressible. In the former case the fluid
dynamic equations can be simplified considerably. If the
state of the fluid is independent of time at every point in
space occupied by the fluid, the flow is called stationary.
(1) If the opposite is true, one has an unsteady flow. For
stationary flows Bernoulli’s equation holds, which says that
the sum of the specific kinetic energy (|v |2 /2) and of the
enthalpy of the fluid is constant along a streamline. A
streamline is defined as a curve whose tangent vector at
each point of the curve has the same direction as the
velocity field of the flow at that point.
If the fluid moves with a velocity smaller or larger
than the sound speed, the flow is called subsonic and
supersonic respectively. The Mach number Ma ≡ |v |/cs ,
which is the ratio of the absolute value of the flow velocity
this aspect of a flow. Transonic flows have Ma ≈ 1.
Supersonic flows accessible in the laboratory have Mach
numbers Ma
10, while astrophysical flows can be
extremely supersonic (Ma > 100).
2
Fluid Dynamics
When a flow accelerates (decelerates) from subsonic
(supersonic) to supersonic (subsonic) speeds shock waves
occur in the flow. A shock wave is a front across which
there is a nearly discontinuous, finite jump in pressure,
with corresponding jumps in temperature, density, and
other fluid properties. Shocks are nonlinear waves whose
behavior is much more complex than that of (linear)
sound waves, which are periodic adiabatic pressure
perturbations of the flow. Because of their nonlinear
character linear superposition does not apply in shock
wave interactions. Flows entering a shock at an oblique
angle are deflected away from the normal direction. The
deflection is due to a decrease of the normal component of
the fluid velocity entering the wave. Hence kinetic energy
≡ w 2 of the random component w
is dissipated into heat in a shock wave, increasing the
entropy of the fluid. Conservation of mass, momentum
and energy must also hold across shock waves. This
/|v |.
fact can be used to derive the Rankine–Hugoniot relations
relating the fluid states on both sides of the shock wave.
One further discriminates between viscous and
inviscous or ideal flows depending on the amount of
viscosity of the fluid. The viscosity of a fluid varies,
in general, with the thermodynamic state of the fluid.
Except for superfluids the viscosity of a fluid is never
exactly zero, but it may be sufficiently small to consider
the fluid for all practical purposes as being inviscous or
ideal. Quantitatively the viscous character of a fluid is
determined by comparing the size of the viscous drag
acting on the fluid with its inertia. The relevant flow
parameter is the Reynolds number Re ≡ |v |l/ν, where l
is a characteristic linear dimension of the flow, and ν is
the kinematic viscosity of the fluid. Viscous flows have
E N C Y C LO P E D IA O F A S T R O N O M Y AN D A S T R O P H Y S I C S
If the turbulence has quantitatively the same structure in
all parts of the flow field, the turbulence is said to be
homogeneous. If the statistical features have no preference
for any direction, the turbulence is called isotropic. At a
given point in the turbulent domain a distinct pattern is
repeated more or less regularly in time, and at a given
instant a distinct pattern is repeated more or less regularly
in space. Turbulent motions in which distinct patterns can
be discerned are described quantitatively by introducing
the notion of scale of turbulence: a certain scale in time and
a certain scale in space. Turbulent motion, in addition to
its scale, is characterized by the violence or intensity of
the turbulence fluctuations,
√ which is defined by the root-
mean-square value w
of the momentary value of the velocity u = v + w about the
mean flow velocity v . Often the intensity of the turbulence
is defined by the relative intensity w
Flow instabilities
Fluid flows are subject to a variety of flow instabilities, the
most common ones being the buoyancy driven Rayleigh–
Taylor instability and the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability
occurring in shear flows.
Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities occur, for example,
when two fluids of different densities are superposed
one over the other or accelerated towards each other (see
figure 1). According to a linear stability analysis the
arrangement of two fluids is stable if the lighter fluid is
on top of the heavier fluid. Otherwise the arrangement of
fluids is unstable.
Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities are ubiquitous in astro-
physical flows. A particular example is Rayleigh–Taylor
Re < 1. Most astrophysical flows have Re  1 (Reynolds
numbers larger than 1010 are not uncommon), because of
the large size of the astrophysical objects.
A common feature of terrestrial and in particular
of astrophysical flows is their tendency to undergo a
spontaneous transition from laminar (i.e. smooth, regular
type of flow) to turbulent flow. This occurs if the Reynolds
number of the flow exceeds a critical value Recrit beyond
which effects due to inertia dominate over friction by such
an amount that the flow becomes unstable to turbulence.
From laboratory experiments one finds critical Reynolds
numbers for fully developed turbulence in the range
1000
Recrit
2000.
According to J O Hinze ‘Turbulent fluid motion is
an irregular condition of flow in which the various fluid
quantities show a random variation with time and space
coordinates, so that statistically distinct average values
can be discerned’. Turbulent motion is not irregular in
either space or time alone, but both. Turbulence can be
generated by friction at fixed walls (‘wall turbulence’) or
by flow of layers of fluids with different velocities past
or over one another (‘free turbulence’). In real viscous
fluids, viscosity effects will result in the conversion of
kinetic energy of flow into heat, i.e. turbulent flow is
dissipative in nature. Hence, if there is no continuous
input energy into the flow, the turbulent motion will decay.
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instabilities induced by the propagation of a shock wave
through the envelope of a massive star which explodes as
a (core collapse) SUPERNOVA (see figure 2). Since the energy
given to the shock wave in a supernova explosion is much
larger than the binding energy of the mass outside the col-
lapsed core, gravity is dynamically unimportant for the
propagation of the shock wave through the stellar enve-
lope. In this case the Rayleigh–Taylor instability is driven
by pressure and density gradients of opposite signs, the
‘effective acceleration’ being the (negative) pressure gra-
dient.
Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities occur whenever the
velocity field of the flow has a gradient perpendicular
to the (local) flow direction, i.e. in the presence of shear
flow. The Kelvin–Helmholtz instability gives rise to a roll-
up of the shear layer. It is responsible for the formation
of mushroom shaped flow structures seen, for example,
in large atmospheric explosions, and in connection with
Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities (see figures 1 and 2). In the
latter case the rising bubbles and sinking spikes resulting
from the Rayleigh–Taylor instability cause a shear flow
with respect to the surrounding matter.
Fluid dynamics and nuclear burning
Much of our understanding of astronomy and astrophysics
is inseparably connected to our understanding of fluid
3
Fluid Dynamics
Figure 1. Rayleigh–Taylor instability in a dense fluid (bright)
supported against gravity (directed upward!) by a lighter fluid
(dark). The horizontal interface between the two fluids (initially
located at 200) has been perturbed by a small sinusoidal
perturbation. The typical structure of a narrow, high-density
finger penetrating into the low-density region and a broader,
low-density bubble at the edge of the grid penetrating into the
high-density region is clearly visible. The mushroom cap
structure on the top of the high-density region, which is created
by the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability, is also apparent.
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Figure 2. Simulation of Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities induced by
the propagation of a shock wave through the envelope of a
massive star which explodes as a (core collapse) supernova. The
initially spherical helium shell (bright grey) of the progenitor
star has been shredded by the instability. The snapshot is taken
about 4 h after the onset of the explosion.
dynamics and nuclear burning. Thermonuclear processes
and gravitational binding are the two major sources of
energy for astronomical flows. The release of energy in
an astrophysical PLASMA gives rise to changing pressure
gradients and so to fluid motion. Such fluid motion, in
turn, will transport ashes and fuel to and from the flame
zone. This gives rise to a subtle and difficult problem.
The degree of difficulty of the problem is closely related
to the nature of the coupling between the nuclear burning
and the fluid flow. Special cases, in which this coupling
is simpler, can be treated more reliably. First, nuclear
reactions release energy in the form of radiation and kinetic
energy of particles; at stellar densities this energy acts to
heat the medium in which the reactions occur. The heating
can modify the pressure, and thereby modify the flow.
Second, nuclear reactions change the composition of the
material, which in turn may modify its equation of state
and its opacity, which in turn may modify the pressure
and the heating, and again the flow. Conversely, the flow
may remove ashes and bring fuel to the flame, countering
the natural tendency of the flame to exhaust its fuel.
Many different types of burning occur in astrophys-
ical problems. Burning can range from quiet hydrostatic
burning, such as occurs in the center of most stars, to the
explosive burning which can occur, for example, in mod-
els of thermonuclear supernova explosions. Burning can
occur in laminar or turbulent flows, the fluid motion being
produced either by external causes and/or by the burning
itself. Hence, the interaction between burning and flow
4
Fluid Dynamics
must be considered.
Hydrostatic burning is the least violent form of
burning and occurs in stars that are hydrostatic. In this
case, the reaction rate is slow enough that energy can
be transported from the burning region by radiation or
conduction as rapidly as it is generated. A similar case
is a subsonically convective flame region, in which heat
and ashes are removed by slow convection, and new fuel
brought in.
Detonations are the most violent form of burning one
encounters. Astrophysical detonations generally occur
only under degenerate conditions. In its simplest form,
detonation wave theory is easily understood. As a shock
propagates into unburned fuel, it compresses and heats the
material beyond the ignition point. Immediately behind
the shock is the reaction zone, in which the fuel burns.
In simple detonation theory the width of the reaction
zone is neglected, and the detonation front is treated as
a sharp discontinuity. In this case jump conditions can
be derived for the change in the fluid variables across the
front in much the same way as is done for a simple shock.
Note, however, that in order to obtain the post-detonation
state one must first choose a detonation velocity, because
unlike the case for simple shocks, the front velocity is
not determined from the jump conditions. The simple
detonation theory assumes that the reaction rate is infinite
and that the reaction zone has zero width. A slightly
more complex treatment is used in the Zeldovich–von
Neumann–Doering model. This theory assumes that the
shock, which is taken to be infinitely thin, is followed by a
reaction zone of finite width. The final state obtained after
the fuel is completely burned is exactly the same as for the
simpler theory described above.
Deflagrations represent a much less violent form of
burning than detonations, but in many ways are more
complex. They result when the burning is unable to
produce sufficient overpressure to create a shock which
is strong enough to ignite the fuel. The motion of the
front is usually very subsonic. Burning is initiated by the
diffusive transfer of heat from the hot ashes behind the
front into the cold fuel. Although, for the case of a thin
front, deflagrations must obey the same jump conditions
as detonations, the propagation velocity now depends on
the rate of heat transfer. Compared to detonations another
major difference is that the pressure and density decrease
behind the deflagration front, and in the reference frame
in which the front is stationary, the velocity increases. In
the simplest theory deflagrations are described as flow
discontinuities, which propagate subsonically. If the flow
is laminar, a physically more accurate description is that
of a conductive or diffusive laminar flame, whose width
and speed is determined by the rate of energy generation
and the transport of energy and composition. In most
situations, however, even this description is too simple,
because deflagrations or subsonic flames are subject to a
variety of instabilities, which can significantly influence
their shape (wrinkling of the flame) and propagation
speed. Moreover, because the propagation speed of the
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flame is subsonic, flame and flow do interact. In particular,
if burning occurs in a convective or turbulent environment,
depending on the relevant length scales and time scales,
physically quite different combustion regimes must be
considered.
Relativistic fluid dynamics
Some astrophysical phenomena require a relativistic
formulation of fluid dynamics. A special relativistic
formulation must be used if the flow velocity reaches
a significant fraction of the speed of light, or if the
internal energy of the fluid becomes comparable to its
rest mass. Such conditions occur in jets from quasars,
active galactic nuclei and some galactic compact binaries,
and in gamma-ray burst sources. General relativistic
flows involving strong gravitational fields and relativistic
speeds are encountered in accretion flows onto compact
objects like neutron stars or black holes, in the formation
or merging process of neutron stars and black holes, and
are most likely at the heart of the processes leading to the
formation of relativistic jets and gamma-ray bursts.
An important difference between Newtonian and
relativistic fluid dynamics is the presence of a maximum
velocity, i.e. the speed of light in a vacuum in the latter case.
A flow can be relativistic in two ways. In a kinematically
relativistic jet the beam gas moves with relativistic velocity,
while in a thermodynamically relativistic jet the specific
internal energy of the beam gas is large compared with its
rest mass energy.
Special relativistic astrophysical flows are encoun-
tered in extragalactic jets (see ASTROPHYSICAL JETS). These are
highly collimated supersonic outflows from ACTIVE GALAC-
TIC NUCLEI. Extragalactic jets are thought to be formed as
a consequence of mass accretion onto a central rotating
super massive BLACK HOLE in an active galactic nucleus be-
ing fed by interstellar gas and gas from tidally disrupted
stars. Most models of the (initial) collimation and acceler-
ation of astrophysical jets involve magnetohydrodynamic
processes at or near the inner edge of a rotating magne-
tized accretion disk with corona. The combined action of
thermal and magnetic pressure gradients, of centrifugal
force and of gravity drives an outflow, which does colli-
mate itself. General relativistic effects seem to be crucial
for a successful launch of the jet. A Newtonian treatment
of extragalactic jets is justified only at distances larger than
several kiloparsec from the central black hole. At smaller
scales, and in particular at parsec scales, jets propagate
at relativistic speeds. Hence, special relativistic hydrody-
namic simulations must be used in order to describe their
propagation correctly (see figures 3 and 4).
Equations for ideal special relativistic flows
The equations of special relativistic fluid dynamics for an
ideal fluid are most conveniently expressed as a set of
conservation equations
∂D
+ div(D v ) = 0
∂t
5
Fluid Dynamics
Figure 3. Color-coded contour plots of the logarithm of the
proper rest-mass density (top) and pressure (bottom) of a hot,
relativistic jet (vb = 0.99c, Ma = 1.72). The maximum values are
coded in white. Decreasingly smaller values are coded in green,
bright blue, dark blue, red and the minimum values are coded in
black. The jet has a ‘naked’ beam and almost completely lacks
internal structure. The beam is surrounded by lobes (near the jet
head) instead of a cocoon and is in pressure equilibrium with the
shocked ambient medium. This figure is reproduced as Color
Plate 20.
Figure 4. Same as figure 3, but for a cold, relativistic jet
(vb = 0.99c, Ma = 6.0). The jet has a beam with internal oblique
shocks and an extended turbulent cocoon. This figure is
reproduced as Color Plate 21.
∂S i
+ div(S i v ) + (gradp)i = 0, i = 1, 2, 3
∂t
∂τ
+ div[(τ + p)v ] = 0
∂t
for the conserved rest-mass density D, momentum density
S = (S 1 , S 2 , S 3 ) and energy density τ , respectively. These
variables, which are defined in a fixed frame, are related
to quantities in the local rest frame of the fluid through
D = ρW
S = ρhc−2 W 2 v
τ = ρhW 2 − p − Dc2
where ρ, p, v , W , h and c are the proper rest-mass density,
the pressure, the flow velocity, the flow Lorentz factor
W = (1 − v 2 /c2 )−1/2 , the specific enthalpy h = c2 + ε + p/ρ,
and the speed of light in a vacuum.
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and Institute of Physics Publishing 2001
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E N C Y C LO P E D IA O F A S T R O N O M Y AN D A S T R O P H Y S I C S
Numerical integration of the fluid dynamic
equations
In astrophysical applications one usually has to solve the
hyperbolic set of the inviscous and compressible Euler
equations instead of the parabolic set of the viscous and
compressible Navier–Stokes equations, because (except
in shock waves) viscosity and heat conduction due to
physical processes are often negligibly small. However,
because of truncation errors and because of finite spatial
resolution, all numerical methods proposed for the
solution of the Euler equations possess some finite intrinsic
numerical viscosity, whose form and size depends on
the numerical method, on the grid resolution, and to
some extent of the flow problem itself. The effect of the
numerical viscosity on the solution can only be quantified
by resolution studies, i.e. by performing a series of
simulations of the same flow problem using different grid
resolution. Thus, when simulating astrophysical flow
one is in the strange situation that one tries to solve the
inviscous Euler equations, but instead solves some viscous
variant, which is also different from the Navier–Stokes
equations.
The evolution equations are a set of coupled nonlinear
first-order (in time) partial differential equations. One
way of solving this set of equations is to discretize them
in time and space. By this discretization the partial
differential equations are transformed into a set of coupled
nonlinear algebraic equations, which can be solved on a
computer with appropriate numerical techniques. The
algebraic equations are not uniquely determined, because
a given differential equation can be discretized in different
ways. Obviously, one tries to choose those algebraic
systems which minimize the truncation errors, and which
possess some additional properties, like being stable and
consistent. This is at the heart of the ‘art of computing’.
Guided by the conservation properties underlying
the hydrodynamic equations applied mathematicians and
physicists have been able to develop accurate and stable
high-resolution finite volume schemes In finite volume
schemes the (finite) computational domain is discretized
into a finite number of zones or cells (typically 102 to 103
per spatial dimension). The hydrodynamic scalar fields
(e.g. density) and the components of the vector fields (e.g.
momentum) are approximated by a set of discrete values,
which are the (approximate) cell averages of the respective
variable. Time is discretized too, the evolution being
approximated by a series of finite time steps (typically 103
to 105 per simulation).
Besides finite volume schemes, another completely
different method is widely used in astrophysics for
integrating the hydrodynamic equations. This method is
smoothed particle hydrodynamics, or SPH for short. In
SPH the fluid or gas is described by a finite set of ‘particles’
(typically 103 to 105 ), which move with the flow. SPH is
a free-Lagrange method, in which spatial gradients are
evaluated without the use of a grid.
6
Fluid Dynamics E N C Y C LO P E D IA O F A S T R O N O M Y AN D A S T R O P H Y S I C S

Bibliography
The literature on fluid dynamics is extensive. Thus, the
following references can only provide entry points into
the field.
The derivation of the fluid dynamic equations
using the phenomenological approach can be found, for
example, in the book by

Shu F H 1991 The Physics of Astrophysics (Mill Valley, CA:

University Science Books)

The kinetic theory approach to the equations of fluid

dynamics is described in detail by

Hirschfelder J O, Curtiss C F and Bird R B 1964 Molecular

Theory of Gases and Liquids (New York: Wiley)

A general introduction to fluid dynamics can be found in

Landau L D and Lifshitz E M 1982 Course of Theoretical

Physics, Vol.VI, Fluid Mechanics (Oxford: Pergamon)

For a modern description of numerical techniques for the

solution of the equations of fluid dynamics one can consult,
e.g.

Laney C B 1998 Computational Gasdynamics (Cambridge:

Cambridge University Press)

or with special emphasis on astrophysical fluid flow

including also various astrophysical applications

LeVeque R J, Mihalas D, Dorfi E A and Müller E 1998

Computational Methods for Astrophysical Fluid Flow ed
O Steiner and A Gautschy (Berlin: Springer)

Ewald Müller

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