Several active galactic nuclei and microquasars are observed to eject plasmoids that move at relativistic speeds. We envisage the plasmoids as pre-existing current carrying magnetic flux ropes that were initially anchored in the accretion disk-corona. The plasmoids are ejected outwards via a mechanism called the toroidal instability (TI). The TI, which was originally explored in the context of laboratory tokamak plasmas, has been very successful in explaining coronal mass ejections from the Sun. Our model predictions for plasmoid trajectories compare favorably with a representative set of multi-epoch observations of radio emitting knots from the radio galaxy 3C120, which were preceded by dips in Xray intensity.

The temporal behaviour of X-rays from some AGN and microquasars is thought to arise from the rapid collapse of the hot, inner parts of their accretion discs. The collapse can occur over the radial infall timescale of the inner accretion disc. However, estimates of this timescale are hindered by a lack of knowledge of the operative viscosity in the collisionless plasma comprising the inner disc. We use published simulation results for cosmic ray diffusion through turbulent magnetic fields to arrive at a viscosity prescription appropriate to hot accretion discs. We construct simplified disc models using this viscosity prescription and estimate disc collapse timescales for 3C 120, 3C 111, and GRS 1915+105. The Shakura-Sunyaev α parameter resulting from our model ranges from 0.02 to 0.08. Our inner disc collapse timescale estimates agree well with those of the observed X-ray dips. We find that the collapse timescale is most sensitive to the outer radius of the hot accretion disc.