The Ole Miss Blazar Group: GPU Enabled Simulations of Jet Propagation using the gPLUTO Code

Blazars are superluminal plasma jets emanating from rotating supermassive black holes which are closely aligned to our line-of-sight. Our research group studies Blazars in the special-relativistic regime with the use of three-dimensional plasma simulations. Our research group has also recently established a new partnership with the Boston University Blazar Group to extend optical polarimetric monitoring of a sample of Gamma-ray bright Blazars targeted by NASA's Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer (IXPE). These polarimetric light curves are invaluable in constraining relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (RMHD) simulations of jet acceleration. To further our understanding of jet acceleration and propagation, I have run 3D simulations of RMHD plasma outflows at the Mississippi Center for Supercomputing Research (MCSR). I have created standing conical recollimation shocks at the jet base within a suite of RMHD simulations in which I inject plasmoids into the jet stream. These standing shocks are believed to be sites of particle acceleration that result in Blazar flares (included those detected in the optical). I have also created bent jets by adjusting the velocity parameters of the ambient medium into which the jet propagates. I am now experimenting with a GPU enabled version of the PLUTO Code (i.e., gPLUTO). I am running GPU accelerated jet simulations on MCSR's new GPU cluster ``Magnolia.'' I will present the results of these new GPU jet simulations and will make comparisons to actual observations of bent jets in the radio.