The baryon content of magnetically arrested black hole disks and jets

[2603.10122] The baryon content of magnetically arrested black hole disks and jets Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Astrophysics > High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena arXiv:2603.10122 (astro-ph) [Submitted on 10 Mar 2026 ( v1 ), last revised 27 Aug 2026 (this version, v2)] Title: The baryon content of magnetically arrested black hole disks and jets Authors: Anthony Chow , Lorenzo Sironi , Bart Ripperda , Amir Levinson View PDF HTML (experimental) Abstract: We study the transport of baryons in magnetically arrested accretion flows and relativistic jets using general relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations that incorporate a passive Eulerian tracer. The tracer allows us to reconstruct a proxy for the physical baryon density supplied by the accretion disk while excluding the mass injected numerically to maintain stability in highly magnetized, low-density regions. Applying this method to axisymmetric black hole simulations with varying spin, we show that baryon loading of the jet is intrinsically episodic and regulated by magnetic flux eruption cycles occurring in the inner accretion flow. Each eruption evacuates baryons from the innermost equatorial region, drives reconnection in extended current sheets, and expels moderately magnetized disk material along the funnel wall, establishing a recurrent mass-loading channel. In spinning black holes, shear-driven waves along the jet boundary further enhance baryon entrainment, whereas this mechanism is suppressed in the non-spinning case. For parameters representative of the black hole accretion flow in M87, we map the global structure and time evolution of the Goldreich-Julian screening boundary, defined as the surface separating regions where the plasma density is sufficient to supply the charges required to screen electric fields parallel to the magnetic field from regions that are charge starved. For spinning black holes, we find that the electromagnetic power of the jet is predominantly carried by baryon-poor plasma, with extended time intervals of charge starvation. Our results provide a framework for diagnosing jet composition, charge starvation, and reconnection-driven mass loading in magnetically arrested black hole systems, with direct implications for particle acceleration and non-thermal emission in low-luminosity accretion flows. Comments: 16 pages, 17 figures. Accepted for publication in MNRAS Subjects: High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) Cite as: arXiv:2603.10122 [astro-ph.HE] (or arXiv:2603.10122v2 [astro-ph.HE] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2603.10122 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Anthony Chow [ view email ] [v1] Tue, 10 Mar 2026 18:01:05 UTC (10,953 KB) [v2] Thu, 27 Aug 2026 04:35:34 UTC (15,216 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View PDF HTML (experimental) TeX Source view license Additional Features Audio Summary Current browse context: astro-ph.HE < prev | next > new | recent | 2026-03 Change to browse by: astro-ph References & Citations INSPIRE HEP SciX Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) IArxiv recommender toggle IArxiv Recommender ( What is IArxiv? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. 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