Formation and Ejection of Helical Plasma Structures from Gravitational Wave Emitters*

Helical plasma structures have been identified and shown to form in and propagate away from the plasmas in which Black Hole binaries can be imbedded [1]. These structures are envisioned to extend through very low-density and distant plasma regions and be disrupted by encountering plasma patches where the waves, of which the structures are composed, become dissipated. By now experimental observations and analyses of the morphology of jets have found that they can involve double-helix magnetic topologies in one case and, more recently, a single helix in other cases. Thus, plasma structures originating in the plasmas surrounding binary systems are proposed, instead of particle beams emitted by black holes directly, as a possible explanation of the origin of the highly collimated jets associated with a variety of celestial objects that are commonly observed. Previously, double-helix structures [1] had been found to emerge as non­linearly coupled torsional ion-sound modes which, in the presence of a background magnetic field in both the formation and terminal regions, generate helical magnetic field configurations while remaining nearly “electrostatic” where no significant background magnetic field is present. These (helical) structures can propagate independently in either of the two directions perpendicular to the circumbinary disk. The coupling involves Intrinsic Gravitational Modes originating in the disk and Inner Gravitational Fluctuations emerging from the Swept (Toroidal) Regions carved, within a high density plasma region, by one or both black holes. *Sponsored in part by the Kavli Foundation.

1. B. Coppi, Fundamental Plasma Physics 4 (2023) 100007.