Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Extragalactic Jets

We have developed a simulation code which solves the equations of relativistic magnetohydrodynamics in conservation form. It was used to conduct a parameter study of two-dimensional, axisymmetric models for radio jets. The simulations show that a toroidal magnetic field affects the dynamics and morphology of jets in numerous ways, while a poloidal magnetic field has less influence. In particular, a toroidal field may produce high density nose cones at the heads of the jets as well as strong, oblique shock waves on the jets' axes leading to a deceleration of the flow. In the second part of the thesis, we simulated the long term evolution of a powerful magnetic radio jet with high resolution. The simulated time of eight million years is only a little shorter than the typical life time of such sources. Radio maps produced from this simulation result agree very well with observations of actual radio galaxies.