Self-collimated electromagnetic jets from magnetized accretion disks

The global electrodynamics of a viscous resistive accretion disk around a Schwarzschild black hole with a force-free plasma outside of the disk is worked out. The magnetic field in the disk is assumed to include a well-ordered component. The magnetic field and fluid dynamics of the disk are tested, simplifying the induction equation and solving for the flux function and the toroidal magnetic field. A Green's function method is used to obtain far-field solutions of the basic electromagnetic field equation for the plasma outside of the disk. The solutions are found to include self-collimated electromagnetic jets. The overall energy conservation for the disk-jet system is considered, and a global condition is derived which imposes an upper bound on the reaction of the accretion luminosity which can be carried away by the jets. 36 references