3.20 Why Straight, Collimated Jets Appear: Applications of the Tension Corridor Waveguide (TCW)

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Reading note: This section is written for general readers. It contains no formulas. We only explain how to use the Tension Corridor Waveguide (TCW) to account for straight, narrow, fast jets. For the definition and formation mechanisms of the Tension Corridor Waveguide (TCW), see Section 1.9.

I. What the Tension Corridor Waveguide Does: Turning “Ignition” into a Straight–Narrow–Fast Escape

• Set the direction: It locks energy and plasma to a preferred axis so near-source bending is minimized.
• Set the narrowness: A slim corridor with a small opening angle yields a straight, collimated outflow.
• Set the coherence: Ordered structure preserves temporal and polarization coherence across pulses, instead of letting turbulence wash it out.
• Set the endurance: With external pressure and “walling” support, the straight-collimated state persists over longer distances, carrying energy to regions that are more transparent and radiatively efficient.

In short: the Tension Corridor Waveguide is a collimator that reliably delivers ignition into straight, narrow, fast jets.

II. Application Overview: A Common “TCW → Jet” Pipeline

• Ignition: Thin shear–reconnection layers near the source release energy in pulses.
• Escort: The Tension Corridor Waveguide shepherds energy from the near-source zone into mid-distances, avoiding re-absorption and bending.
• Shifting gears: Geometry and ordering may switch between modes during the burst (observed as discrete polarization-angle jumps).
• Off-leash: After strong collimation ends, the jet transitions into broader propagation and afterglow (often with re-collimation nodes and geometric breaks).

III. System Mapping: Where the Tension Corridor Waveguide Enters and What to Look For

1. Gamma-Ray Bursts (GRBs)
   • Why straight/collimated: Collapse/merger opens a stable corridor along the spin axis, delivering the brightest prompt emission to a more transparent radius and avoiding near-source cancellation and bending.
   • Near-source scale: About 0.5–50 au, keeping even sub-second spikes narrow and straight.
   • What to expect: Polarization rises on the leading edge, with discrete angle jumps between neighboring pulses; the afterglow shows two or more achromatic breaks (signatures of corridor tiers or gear shifts).
2. Active Galactic Nuclei and Microquasars
   • Why straight/collimated: From near-horizon to sub-parsec scales, a long, steady corridor produces a parabolic collimation zone that transitions to a conical expansion.
   • Near-source scale: Roughly 10^3–10^6 au (increasing with central mass).
   • What to expect: A spine–sheath structure with edge brightening; opening angle evolving from parabolic to conical with distance; year-scale polarization patterns that reorganize or flip, indicating corridor gear shifts.
3. Tidal Disruption Event (TDE) Jets
   • Why straight/collimated: After a star is torn apart, a short-lived but efficient corridor rapidly forms around the spin axis, collimating early outflows.
   • Near-source scale: About 1–300 au; as accretion subsides and external pressure weakens, the corridor relaxes or stops.
   • What to expect: Early polarization is high and stable, then falls or flips quickly; for off-axis views, light curves and spectra show clear time-dependent reorientation.
4. Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs)
   • Why straight/collimated: Near a magnetar, an ultra-short corridor segment compresses coherent radio emission into an extremely narrow beam, punching out in milliseconds.
   • Near-source scale: About 0.001–0.1 au.
   • What to expect: Nearly pure linear polarization; the rotation measure exhibits step-like changes over time; repeaters show “binned” polarization-angle switching between bursts.
5. Slower Jets and Other Systems (Protostellar Jets, Pulsar-Wind Nebulae)
   • Why straight/collimated: Even without relativistic speeds, any corridor geometry still collimates: the near-source straight segment fixes direction, while environment and disk winds shape the later appearance.
   • Near-source scale: Protostellar jets often show 10–100 au straight segments; pulsar-wind nebulae favor short polar corridors and ring-like equatorial structures.
   • What to expect: Column-like collimation with shrink-and-rebound at nodes (re-collimation); preferred orientations aligned with filamentary structures of the host medium.

IV. Application Fingerprints for the Tension Corridor Waveguide (Checks J1–J6)

These indicators identify the “TCW-driven straight-jet” scenario and complement the Section 3.10 checklist (P1–P6).

• J1 | Polarization leads the flux: Within a pulse, polarization rises on the leading edge and brightness peaks afterward (coherence arrives first, energy follows).
• J2 | Discrete polarization-angle bins: Between neighboring pulses, the angle switches in discrete steps, tracing corridor-unit replacement or gear shifts.
• J3 | Stepwise rotation-measure changes: Early/Prompt intervals show step-like RM evolution aligned with pulse edges or polarization-angle jumps.
• J4 | Multi-tier geometric breaks: Afterglows exhibit two or more achromatic breaks whose time-ratio clusters across events, revealing corridor tier geometry.
• J5 | Spine–sheath with edge brightening: Imaging shows a faster spine and slower sheath, with brighter edges.
• J6 | Consistent over-transparency direction: Directions of unusually transparent high-energy photons align statistically with host filaments or dominant shear axes.

Decision rule: If an event/source class meets at least two of J1–J4 and morphology supports J5/J6, a TCW-driven straight-jet explanation is strongly favored over non-channeled models.

V. A Layered Model (Division of Labor with Contemporary Theory)

• Base layer: geometry priors from the Tension Corridor Waveguide
• Explain collimator-like behavior, multi-tier gear shifts, discretized polarization angles, step-wise rotation measures, and multi-level geometric breaks. Provide priors for length, opening angle, tiers, and switching epochs.
• Middle layer: conventional jet dynamics and MHD
• Given the geometry priors, compute velocity fields, energy transport, and coupling to lateral pressure. Account for stability and the transition from parabolic to conical flow.
• Top layer: radiation and propagation
• Use standard radiation and transfer to synthesize spectra, light curves, polarization, and rotation measure, and to model re-processing along the large-scale structure of the universe.
• Workflow suggestion
• First, screen with J1–J6 to assess whether a TCW-driven straight jet is present. Then forward positive cases to dynamics and radiation modules for detailed fitting and interpretation.

VI. Summary

• Mechanism in practice: The Tension Corridor Waveguide escorts ignition into straight, narrow, fast outflows. Its success can be checked directly with J1–J6.
• Unified across sources: From GRBs and AGN to TDE jets, FRBs, and slower jets, a common corridor geometry explains why straight, collimated jets appear.
• Collaborative modeling: Constrain geometry with TCW priors, then layer standard dynamics and radiation to link morphology, phase behavior, spectra, and polarization into a reusable, testable chain.

For principles and formation mechanisms, see Section 1.9. For the full chain—acceleration, escape, and propagation—see Section 3.10.