Led by J.M. Martí and M. Perucho, this research line focuses on galactic and extragalactic relativistic jets, their radiative production and dynamical effects on their environments, using in-house relativistic hydrodynamics (RHD) and magnetohydrodynamics (RMHD) codes. The group collaborates with VLBI teams in Germany, the EHT Collaboration, and the Radioastron space-VLBI mission. Their simulation codes, originally developed at the Department during Prof. Martí’s PhD in the early 1990s and later advanced by Prof. Perucho, are now widely used to study galactic and extragalactic jet physics and evolution. Over the past five years, the group has developed a 3D RMHD code to investigate microquasar jets and has a strong track record in modeling long-term active galactic nuclei (AGN) jet evolution. Recent work includes the study of high-power jets across hundreds of kiloparsecs and their interaction with the intracluster medium (ICM), as well as analytical models explaining jet deceleration in low-power jets and the ionization of cold interstellar clouds by jet-driven shocks. These developments are supported by a new version of their code, which now incorporates atomic hydrogen ionization and recombination and allows for separate treatment of leptons and protons via a relativistic equation of state. Current applications of these tools focus on high-energy radiation processes and potential high-energy neutrino sources, such as jet-star interactions, flow instabilities, and feedback mechanisms. The group has also developed an analytical model of radio-galaxy evolution, which they aim to calibrate with LOFAR low-redshift data and extend to higher redshifts to explore the cosmological evolution and impact of AGN jets.
Senior researchers: J.M. Martí, M. Perucho.
More information: https://www.uv.es/rag/relativistic_astrophysics.html