Nonaxisymmetric Poynting jets

The relativistic plasma jets from a misaligned black hole-accretion disk system will not be axially symmetric. Here we analyze nonaxisymmetric, stationary, translation invariant jets in the force-free approximation where the field energy dominates the particle energy. We derive a stream equation for these configurations involving the flux function ψ for the transverse magnetic field, the linear velocity v(ψ) of field lines along the jet, and the longitudinal magnetic field Bz(ψ). The equations can be completely solved when |v|=1, and when |v|<1 the problem can be reduced to the pure magnetic case v=0 by a "field line dependent boost." We also find a large class of nonaxisymmetric solutions with arbitrary dependence on the longitudinal retarded time. A subclass of these constitutes a novel type of jet that has vanishing electromagnetic pressure 12(B2-E2) and requires no external pressure for confinement. We prove that such self-confinement is impossible when B2>E2. Finally, we write down specific solutions approximating numerical results for the nonaxisymmetric jet produced by a spinning black hole in an external, misaligned magnetic field.