mm-jets in the multi-messenger era
astro-ph.HE, astro-ph.IM
Submitted: 2026-10-14
Updated: 2026-10-14
Comments: Part of the ALMA2040 White Paper Series. 10 pages, 2 figures
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The gist: Jets and outflows operate across the full cosmic mass scale from young stellar objects (YSOs) and X-ray binaries (XRBs) to active galactic nuclei (AGN), gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), and tidal disruption
Terminology
Abstract
Jets and outflows operate across the full cosmic mass scale from young stellar objects (YSOs) and X-ray binaries (XRBs) to active galactic nuclei (AGN), gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), and tidal disruption events (TDEs), shaping many time-domain and multi-messenger transients. Key questions concern on how jets are launched, accelerated and collimated; where and how they dissipate energy and accelerate particles; and how they couple to their environments to set electromagnetic counterpart diversity and feedback. Millimeter and sub-millimeter observations uniquely address these questions by tracking the evolving synchrotron turnover for robust calorimetry and Lorentz-factor constraints, providing full-Stokes polarization and Faraday diagnostics close to the jet base, and enabling high-resolution imaging from Galactic ejecta to event-horizon-scale AGN jet bases via global Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). We describe the jet and outflow science enabled by ALMA2040, a next-generation mm/sub-mm interferometer combining an order-of-magnitude sensitivity gain with rapid-response observing, simultaneous multi-band coverage, full-Stokes polarimetry, and integration with global VLBI networks. These capabilities will enable statistically controlled, trigger-driven samples spanning XRB outbursts, early GRB afterglows, protostellar disk winds and jet launching, AGN jet bases, and jetted TDEs, establishing mm/sub-mm astronomy as a cornerstone of time-domain and multi-messenger jet physics in the 2040s and beyond.
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