Protostellar Jets Driven by a Disorganized Magnetic Field

Abstract

We have proposed a viscoelastic model of the Maxwell stresses due to the disorganized magnetic field in MRI-driven MHD turbulence. Viscoelastic fluids in the laboratory are known to produce jet-like structures under the action of a rotating sphere. Here we argue that a similar mechanism may help explain jets in protostellar systems. Such jets would be driven not by large-scale organized magnetic fields, but by the mean-field stresses of small-scale tangled magnetic fields.