Jet instabilities and non-thermal emission from SS 433

The collimated radio and diffuse X-ray emission of the peculiar object SS 433 is discussed in the scheme of the precessing jet model. It is proposed that these jets are unstable against Kelvin-Helmholtz fluid instabilities, which transfer energy from the ordered flow to MHD turbulence. In this framework radio and X-ray radiation from the inner region of the object can be interpreted in terms of synchrotron radiation produced by relativistic electrons accelerated in the jets via resonant cyclotron interaction with turbulent waves. At the same time, the X-ray diffuse emission from the extended regions can be produced via inverse Compton scattering by mildly relativistic electrons (accelerated again by stochastic mechanisms), interacting with the photon radiation field originated, in the binary system, by the star companion of the compact object. The fit of this model to the X-ray morphology recently obtained from the Einstein Observatory is discussed.