Understanding the role of kink instability in developing peculiar morphological features in AGN jets

Abstract

The latest generation of radio telescopes, with their enhanced sensitivity and refined spatial resolution, are unveiling previously unidentified objects and capturing them with unprecedented details. One such enigmatic object is a radio galaxy located within the Abell 3266 cluster named “MysTail”, observed as part of the MeerKAT Galaxy Cluster Legacy Survey. This galaxy exhibits complex morphological features including a distinctive ribbed tail, referred to as ’ribs,’ and thin faint filamentary structures known as ’tethers’ that stretch between two bright patches far from the host. These features illustrate the complex dynamics of large-scale relativistic jets that emanate from Active Galactic Nuclei(AGN) and can extend up to hundreds of kiloparsecs. This thesis, with particular relevance to “MysTail”, focuses on exploring the intricate morphologies of such relativistic jets. The intriguing morphology of “MysTail” characterized by ribs and tethers, might be attributed to fluctuating jets, restarted AGN activity, or dynamical instabilities within the jet, highlighting the complex dynamics of astrophysical jets.