---
DOAJ_listed: '1'
OA_place: publisher
OA_type: gold
PlanS_conform: '1'
_id: '23199'
abstract:
- lang: eng
  text: The physics governing the morphology of radio-loud active galactic nucleus
    (AGN) jets is not fully understood. We investigate how magnetization, flickering
    jet power and the interplay between them affects the morphology of radio galaxies.
    We present a grid of relativistic magnetohydrodynamic simulations using the pluto
    code covering constant and variable jets with two levels of magnetization. We
    find that the constant high-magnetization jets can lead to highly asymmetrical
    cocoon morphologies, while the variable high-magnetization jet can exhibit a broken
    morphology, caused by a discontinuous jet beam. Our work highlights the importance
    of magnetization and variability on the stability and resulting morphology of
    radio-loud AGN jets, suggesting both are significant factors in addition to jet
    power or environment. Furthermore, we show that the interaction between magnetization
    and variability can lead to the development of localized kink instabilities along
    the jet beam. Finally, we discuss the effects of hydrodynamic mixing in low-magnetization
    jets and the role of viewing-angle dependence in comparisons between our simulations
    and observed sources. To facilitate this comparison we present a library of simulated
    radio images at different times in the simulations and from various viewing angles,
    which highlight a diverse set of complex morphologies.
acknowledgement: 'JHM and ELE acknowledge funding from a Royal Society University
  Research Fellowship (URF\R1\221062). AJC acknowledges support from the Oxford Hintze
  Centre for Astrophysical Surveys, which is funded through generous support from
  the Hintze Family Charitable Foundation. HW acknowledges funding by the Science
  and Technology Facilities Council Grant Number ST/W000903/1 and the ISTA-Fellow
  programme. The authors acknowledge the use of resources provided by the Isambard
  3 Tier-2 HPC Facility. Isambard 3 is hosted by the University of Bristol and operated
  by the GW4 Alliance (https://gw4.ac.uk) and is funded by UK Research and Innovation
  and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EP/X039137/1). The authors
  would like to acknowledge the use of the University of Oxford Advanced Research
  Computing (ARC) facility in carrying out this work (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.22558).
  We are grateful for the use of the following software packages: pluto (A. Mignone
  et al. 2007) and matplotlib (J. D. Hunter 2007). We are grateful to Dipanjan Mukherjee,
  Imogen Whittam, Matt Jarvis, Judith Croston and Fraser Cowie for useful discussions.
  The authors wish to thank the anonymous referee for their helpful and constructive
  comments which have improved the quality of this manuscript.'
article_number: stag1798
article_processing_charge: Yes
article_type: original
arxiv: 1
author:
- first_name: Emma L
  full_name: Elley, Emma L
  last_name: Elley
- first_name: James H
  full_name: Matthews, James H
  last_name: Matthews
- first_name: Henry William
  full_name: Whitehead, Henry William
  id: b5363ed7-0345-11f1-8029-eef7ff5d6bfc
  last_name: Whitehead
  orcid: 0009-0006-0716-0965
- first_name: Alex J
  full_name: Cooper, Alex J
  last_name: Cooper
citation:
  ama: Elley EL, Matthews JH, Whitehead HW, Cooper AJ. The impact of flickering variability
    and magnetization on the dynamics, stability, and morphology of radio-loud AGN
    jets. <i>Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</i>. 2026;552(4). doi:<a
    href="https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag1798">10.1093/mnras/stag1798</a>
  apa: Elley, E. L., Matthews, J. H., Whitehead, H. W., &#38; Cooper, A. J. (2026).
    The impact of flickering variability and magnetization on the dynamics, stability,
    and morphology of radio-loud AGN jets. <i>Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
    Society</i>. Oxford University Press. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag1798">https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag1798</a>
  chicago: Elley, Emma L, James H Matthews, Henry William Whitehead, and Alex J Cooper.
    “The Impact of Flickering Variability and Magnetization on the Dynamics, Stability,
    and Morphology of Radio-Loud AGN Jets.” <i>Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical
    Society</i>. Oxford University Press, 2026. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag1798">https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag1798</a>.
  ieee: E. L. Elley, J. H. Matthews, H. W. Whitehead, and A. J. Cooper, “The impact
    of flickering variability and magnetization on the dynamics, stability, and morphology
    of radio-loud AGN jets,” <i>Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</i>,
    vol. 552, no. 4. Oxford University Press, 2026.
  ista: Elley EL, Matthews JH, Whitehead HW, Cooper AJ. 2026. The impact of flickering
    variability and magnetization on the dynamics, stability, and morphology of radio-loud
    AGN jets. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 552(4), stag1798.
  mla: Elley, Emma L., et al. “The Impact of Flickering Variability and Magnetization
    on the Dynamics, Stability, and Morphology of Radio-Loud AGN Jets.” <i>Monthly
    Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society</i>, vol. 552, no. 4, stag1798, Oxford
    University Press, 2026, doi:<a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag1798">10.1093/mnras/stag1798</a>.
  short: E.L. Elley, J.H. Matthews, H.W. Whitehead, A.J. Cooper, Monthly Notices of
    the Royal Astronomical Society 552 (2026).
das_tickbox: '1'
dataavailabilitystatement: The data underlying this article are available from the
  authors on reasonable request. Furthermore, the data for the simulated radio images
  from various angles as discussed in Section 2.3 are publicly available as FITS files
  from https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20140021.
date_created: 2026-10-27T10:39:59Z
date_published: 2026-11-01T00:00:00Z
date_updated: 2026-10-28T08:19:37Z
day: '01'
ddc:
- '520'
department:
- _id: ZoHa
doi: 10.1093/mnras/stag1798
external_id:
  arxiv:
  - '2605.13469'
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fulldoi: https://doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stag1798
has_accepted_license: '1'
intvolume: '       552'
issue: '4'
language:
- iso: eng
license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
month: '11'
oa: 1
oa_version: Published Version
publication: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
publication_identifier:
  eissn:
  - 1365-2966
  issn:
  - 0035-8711
publication_status: published
publisher: Oxford University Press
quality_controlled: '1'
researchdata_availability: upon request
scopus_import: '1'
status: public
supplementarymaterial: yes
title: The impact of flickering variability and magnetization on the dynamics, stability,
  and morphology of radio-loud AGN jets
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