The class of Double-Double Radio Galaxies (DDRGs) relates to episodic jet outbursts. How various regions and components add to the total intensity in radio images is less well known. In this paper we synthesize synchrotron images for DDRGs based on special relativistic hydrodynamic simulations, making advanced approximations for the magnetic fields. We study the synchrotron images for: Three different radial jet profiles; Ordered, entangled or mixed magnetic fields; Spectral ageing from synchrotron cooling; The contribution from different jet components; The viewing angle and Doppler (de-)boosting; The various epochs of the evolution of the DDRG. To link our results to observational data, we adopt to J1835+6204 as a reference source. In all cases the synthesized synchrotron images show two clear pairs of hotspots, in the inner and outer lobes. The best resemblance is obtained for the piecewise isochoric jet model, for a viewing angle of approximately $\vartheta \sim -71^{\circ}$, i.e. inclined with the lower jet towards the observer, with predominantly entangled ($\gtrsim 70$ per cent of the magnetic pressure) in turbulent, rather than ordered fields. The effects of spectral ageing become significant when the ratio of observation frequencies and cut-off frequency $ν_{\rm obs}/ν_{\infty,0} \gtrsim 10^{-3}$, corresponding to $\sim 3 \cdot 10^2$ MHz. For viewing angles $\vartheta \lesssim -30^{\circ}$, a DDRG morphology can no longer be recognized. The second jets must be injected within $\lesssim$ 4 per cent of the lifetime of the first jets for a DDRG structure to emerge, which is relevant for Active Galactic Nuclei feedback constraints.
The basic mechanism responsible for radio emission in radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGNs) is assumed to be synchrotron radiation. We suggest here that radio emission in radio-quiet objects is also due to synchrotron radiation of particles accelerated in shocks. We consider generic shocks and study the resulting synchrotron properties. We estimate the synchrotron radio luminosity and compare it with the X-ray component produced by inverse Compton emission. We obtain that the radio to X-ray luminosity ratio is much smaller than unity, with values typical of radio-quiet sources. The predicte…
Recently, the IC/CMB X-ray mechanism has been strongly disfavoured for 3C 273 and PKS 0637-752 since the anomalously hard and steady gamma-ray emission predicted by such models violates the observational results from Fermi-LAT. Here we propose the proton synchrotron origin of the X ray-gamma ray flux from the knots of PKS 0637-752 with a reasonable budget in luminosity, by considering synchrotron radiation from an accelerated proton population. Moreover, for the source 3C 273, some of the optical data points could not be explained by electron synchrotron (Meyer et al. 2015), which we have incl…
Radio-mode AGN feedback plays a key role in the evolution of galaxy groups and clusters. Its physical origin lies in the kpc-scale interaction of AGN jets with the intracluster medium. Large-scale jet simulations often initiate light internally-supersonic jets with density contrast $0.01<η<1$. Here we argue for the first time for the importance of very-light ($η<0.01$) internally-subsonic jets. We investigated the shapes of young X-ray cavities produced in a suite of hydrodynamic simulations, and found that bottom-wide cavities are always produced by internally-subsonic jets, while internally-…
We have simulated the evolution of non-thermal cosmic ray electrons (CREs) in 3D relativistic magneto hydrodynamic (MHD) jets evolved up to a height of 9 kpc. The CREs have been evolved in space and in energy concurrently with the relativistic jet fluid, duly accounting for radiative losses and acceleration at shocks. We show that jets stable to MHD instabilities show expected trends of regular flow of CREs in the jet spine and acceleration at a hotspot followed by a settling backflow. However, unstable jets create complex shock structures at the jet-head (kink instability), the jet spine-coco…
Radio observations by ALMA and upper limits on gamma ray flux by Fermi LAT have ruled out inverse Compton scattering of Cosmic Microwave Background radiation by relativistic electrons (IC/CMB) as the origin of X-ray emission from extended jets of six quasars 3C 273, PKS 0637-752, PKS 1136-135, PKS 1229-021, PKS 1354+195, and PKS 2209+080. Here we consider two populations of accelerated electrons in each knot of the extended jets to explain the radio to optical and the X-ray emission by synchrotron cooling of relativistic electrons. In all cases the jet power required is lower than the Eddingto…
In this paper, transient high energy events and their hosts are discussed with focus on signatures of radio synchrotron emission. Outstanding questions range from the origin of the two phases of radio emission in supernovae to the formation of conical jets launched at relativistic velocities in active nuclei to the formation of radio hotspots in FR II sources to the formation of radio relics and halos in clusters of galaxies to the origin of the relativistic electron population and its energy spectrum which is responsible for the synchrotron emission to the composition of the radio synchrotron…
In this paper three dimensional relativistic hydrodynamic simulations of AGN jets are presented to investigate the FR I/FR II dichotomy. Three simulations are presented which illustrates the difference in morphology for high/low Lorentz factor injection as well as a stratified background medium. Lorentz factors of 10 and 1.0014 were used for the high and low Lorentz factor cases respectively. The hydrodynamic simulations show a division in the morphology of jets based on their initial injection luminosity. An additional simulation was set up to investigate the evolution of the low Lorentz fact…
We collect a large sample with a reliable redshift detected by the Fermi satellite after 10 years of data (4FGL-DR2), including blazars, $γ$-ray Narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxies ($γ$NLS1s), and radio galaxies. The spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of these Fermi sources are fitted by using a second-degree polynomial, and some important parameters including spectral curvature, synchrotron peak frequency, and peak luminosity are obtained. Based on those parameters, we discuss the Fermi blazar sequence and the particle acceleration mechanism. Our main results are as follows:(i) By studying the r…
We describe a geometric model for synchrotron radiation from blazar jets, involving multiple emission zones with turbulent magnetic fields and a transient core with a helical B field. Including the effects of jet divergence, particle cooling and the Relativistic PA rotation (RPAR) to the observer frame, we find polarization behavior consistent with recent data from monitoring campaigns. We predict that under some circumstances multi-$π$ rotation phases should exhibit relativistically-induced steps in rate $d{\rm PA}/dt$ and modulation in polarization $Π$ that can be helpful in pinning down the…
Relativistic jets launched by rotating black holes are powerful emitters of non-thermal radiation. Extraction of the rotational energy via electromagnetic stresses produces magnetically-dominated jets, which may become turbulent. Studies of magnetically-dominated plasma turbulence from first principles show that most of the accelerated particles have small pitch angles, i.e. the particle velocity is nearly aligned with the local magnetic field. We examine synchrotron-self-Compton radiation from anisotropic particles in the fast cooling regime. The small pitch angles reduce the synchrotron cool…
We describe a geometric model for synchrotron and synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) radiation from blazar jets, involving multiple emission zones with turbulent magnetic fields and fully self-consistent seed photon mixing for SSC. Including the effects of jet divergence, particle cooling and the Relativistic PA rotation (RPAR) to the observer frame, we find that the multi-zone model recovers simple predictions for SSC polarization, but describes new dependencies on jet viewing geometry and zone multiplicity. Increasing the zone number decreases both synchrotron and SSC polarization, but with diff…
The Impact of a Clumpy Ambient Medium on the Dynamics and Synchrotron Emission of AGN Jets
Max Planck Institute for Astronomy（马克斯·普朗克天文学研究所）；Department of Astronomy, Astrophysics and Space Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Indore（印度印多尔理工学院天文、天体物理与空间工程系）
The magnetic field is believed to play a critical role in the bulk acceleration and propagation of jets produced in active galactic nuclei (AGN). Polarization observations of AGN jets provide valuable information about their magnetic fields. As a result of radiative transfer, jet structure, and stratification, among other factors, it is not always straightforward to determine the magnetic field structures from observed polarization. We review these effects and their impact on polarization emission at a variety of wavelengths, including radio, optical, and ultraviolet wavelengths in this paper.…
Simulations of feedback by jets from active galactic nuclei (AGN) in the past mostly focused on the interaction at large scales as the circumgalactic medium or intra-cluster medium for clusters of galaxies. Only in recent years, simulations have included the interaction of jets with a highly inhomogeneous medium as required by a multi-phase interstellar medium (ISM). At the same time, feedback by AGN has become a common component for cosmological simulations of galaxy evolution to form massive galaxies compatible with observations. I will present some of our recent results and will put them in…
Jets from active galaxies propagate from the central black hole out to the radio lobes on scales of hundreds of kiloparsecs. The jets may encounter giant stars with strong stellar winds and produce observable signatures. For strong winds and weak jets, the interaction may truncate the jet flow during its transit via the mass loading. For weaker jets, the interaction can produce knots in the jet. We present recent 3DMHD numerical simulations to model the evolution of this jet-wind interaction and its observational consequences. We explore (i) the relative mechanical luminosity of the radio jets…
The jets from active galactic nuclei exhibit stability which seems to be far superior compared to that of terrestrial and laboratory jets. They manage to propagate over distances up to a billion of initial jet radii. Yet this may not be an indication of some exotic physics but mainly a reflection of the specific environment these jets propagate through. The key property of this environment is a rapid decline of density and pressure along the jet, which promotes its rapid expansion. Such an expansion can suppress global instabilities, which require communication across the jet, and hence ensure…
We propose a new analytic scaling of the cut-off frequency of synchrotron radiation from active galactic nucleus (AGN) jets that are nonuniformly filled with many filaments. The theoretical upper limit is provided independent of magnetic intensity, spectral index, coherence and correlation length of filamentary turbulence, etc., such that ν_c\simeq 6\times 10^{20}δ[(r-1)/r]^{4/3}(b/10^{-4}) Hz, where δ, r and b are the Doppler beaming factor, shock-compression ratio and energy-density ratio of the perturbed/local mean magnetic field of the filaments, respectively. Combining our results with ob…
Considerable asymmetries in jets from active galactic nuclei (AGN) and associated double radio sources can be caused by an inhomogeneous interstellar medium of the host galaxy. These asymmetries can easily be estimated by 1D propagation models, but hydrodynamical simulations have shown that the actual asymmetries can be considerably larger. With a set of smaller-scale hydrodynamical simulations we examine these asymmetries, and find they are typically a factor of $\sim 3$ larger than in 1D models. We conclude that, at high redshift, large asymmetries in radio sources are expected in gas-rich g…
Jetted plasma outflows from active galactic nuclei (AGN) represent the most energetic phenomena in the known universe, and play a key role in regulating galaxy formation through feedback processes. The JVLA and VLBA have played an indispensable role in understanding the physics of these powerful jets and their environments, via high angular resolution full polarization imaging and astrometric studies. By bridging the current interferometric gap between the JVLA and VLBA with intermediate baselines, the ngVLA offers exciting new opportunities to explore the intermediate regions downstream of th…
Flows of synchrotron-emitting material can be found in several astrophysical contexts, including extragalactic jets and pulsar-wind nebulae (PWNe). For X-ray synchrotron emission, flow times are often longer than electron radiative lifetimes, so the effective source size at a given X-ray energy is the distance electrons radiating at that energy can convect before they burn off. Since synchrotron losses vary strongly with electron energy, the source size drops with increasing X-ray energy, resulting in a steepening of the synchrotron spectrum. For homogeneous sources, this burnoff produces the …
Radio-Loud (RL) Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) are among the brightest astrophysical sources at all wavelengths. Their relativistic jets can affect both their Supermassive Black Holes (SMBHs) growth and the surrounding intergalactic medium. While in the radio band these jets can be observed at all scales (from pc to Mpc scales), their X-ray and γ-ray emission is expected to be concentrated on very small scales (<10 pc). However, after the launch of the Chandra X-ray telescope, several kpc-scale jets were detected and the mechanism responsible for their high-energy radiation at these scales is s…
We have compared the radio emission from a sample of parsec-scale AGN jets as measured by the VLBA at 15 GHz, with their associated gamma-ray properties that are reported in the Fermi LAT 3-month bright source list. We find in our radio-selected sample that the gamma-ray photon flux correlates well with the quasi-simultaneously measured compact radio flux density. The LAT-detected jets in our radio-selected complete sample generally have higher compact radio flux densities, and their parsec-scale cores are brighter (i.e., have higher brightness temperature) than the jets in the LAT non-detecte…
The formation of relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei (AGN) is related to accretion on to their central supermassive black holes, and magnetic fields are believed to play a central role in launching, collimating and accelerating the jet streams from very compact regions out to kiloparsec or megaparsec scales. In the presence of helical or toroidal magnetic fields threading the AGN jets and their immediate vicinity, gradients in the observed Faraday rotation measures are expected due to the systematic change in the line-of-sight component of the magnetic field across the jet. We have ana…
In the first of a series of papers investigating emission from blazar jets from radio to high-energy γ-rays, we revisit the class of models where the jet has a uniform conical ballistic structure. We argue that by using simple developments of these models, in the context of new multi-frequency data extending to gamma-ray energies, valuable insights may be obtained into the properties that fully realistic models must ultimately have. In this paper we consider the synchrotron and synchrotron-self-Compton emission from the jet, modelling the recent simultaneous multi-wavelength observations of BL…
Observational studies of collimation in jets in active galactic nuclei (AGN) are a key to understanding their formation and acceleration processes. We have performed an automated search for jet shape transitions in a sample of 367 AGN using VLBA data at 15 GHz and 1.4 GHz. This search has found ten out of 29 nearby jets at redshifts z<0.07 with a transition from a parabolic to conical shape, while the full analyzed sample is dominated by distant AGN with a typical z about 1. The ten AGN are UGC00773, NGC1052, 3C111, 3C120, TXS0815-094, Mrk180, PKS1514+00, NGC6251, 3C371, and BL Lac. We conclud…
Jet feedback from active galactic nuclei (AGN) is one of the most promising mechanisms for suppressing cooling flows in cool-core clusters. However, the composition of AGN jets and bubbles remains uncertain; they could be thermally dominated, or dominated by cosmic-ray proton (CRp), cosmic-ray electron (CRe), or magnetic energy. In this work, we investigate the evolution and feedback effects of CRp and CRe dominated jets by conducting 3D magnetohydrodynamic simulations of AGN jet-inflated bubbles in the intracluster medium using the FLASH code. We present the evolution of their energies, dynam…
We present full-time-domain, moving-mesh, relativistic hydrodynamic simulations of jets launched from the center of a massive progenitor star and compute the resulting synchrotron light curves for observers at a range of viewing angles. We follow jet evolution from ignition inside the stellar center, propagation in the stellar envelope and breakout from the stellar surface, then through the coasting and deceleration phases. The jet compresses into a thin shell, sweeps up the circumstellar medium, and eventually enters the Newtonian phase. The jets naturally develop angular and radial structure…
We investigate optical, infrared, and radio active galactic nucleus (AGN) signs in the merger remnant Arp 187, which hosts luminous jets launched in the order of $10^5$ yr ago but whose present-day AGN activity is still unknown. We find AGN signs from the optical BPT diagram and infrared [OIV]25.89 $μ$m line, originating from the narrow line regions of AGN. On the other hand, Spitzer/IRS show the host galaxy dominated spectra, suggesting that the thermal emission from the AGN torus is considerably small or already diminished. Combining the black hole mass, the upper limit of radio luminosity o…
We present an extension to the general relativistic radiation magnetohydrodynamic code HARMRAD to account for emission and absorption by thermal cyclo-synchrotron, double Compton, bremsstrahlung, low-temperature OPAL opacities as well as Thomson and Compton scattering. We approximate the radiation field as a Bose-Einstein distribution and evolve it using the radiation number-energy-momentum conservation equations in order to track photon hardening. We perform various simulations to study how these extensions affect the radiative properties of magnetically-arrested disks accreting at Eddington …
Relativistic jets of plasma are a key ingredient of many types of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN). Today we know that AGNs are powered by the accretion of inter stellar material into the gravitational field of a Super Massive Black Hole and that this process can release as much power as a whole galaxy, like the Milky Way, from a region that is comparable to the Solar System in size. Depending on the properties of the central energy source, a large fraction of this power can be involved in the acceleration of magnetized plasmas at relativistic speeds, to form large scale jets. The presence of jets…
Synchrotron self-absorption in active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets manifests itself as a time delay between flares observed at high and low radio frequencies. It is also responsible for the observing frequency dependent change in size and position of the apparent base of the jet, aka the core shift effect, detected with very long baseline interferometry (VLBI). We measure the time delays and the core shifts in 11 radio-loud AGN to estimate the speed of their jets without relying on multi-epoch VLBI kinematics analysis. The 15$-$8 GHz total flux density time lags are obtained using Gaussian proce…
We investigate the polarization properties of Comptonized X-rays from relativistic jets in Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) using Monte Carlo simulations. We consider three scenarios commonly proposed for the observed X-ray emission in AGN: Compton scattering of blackbody photons emitted from an accretion disk; scattering of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons; and self-Comptonization of intrinsically polarized synchrotron photons emitted by jet electrons. Our simulations show that for Comptonization of disk and CMB photons, the degree of polarization of the scattered photons increases with …
Feeding and feedback of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are critical for understanding the dynamics and thermodynamics of the intracluster medium (ICM) within the cores of galaxy clusters. While radio bubbles inflated by AGN jets could be dynamically supported by cosmic rays (CRs), the impact of CR-dominated jets are not well understood. In this work, we perform three-dimensional simulations of CR-jet feedback in an isolated cluster atmosphere; we find that CR jets impact the multiphase gas differently than jets dominated by kinetic energy. In particular, CR bubbles can more efficiently uplift th…
Radio maps of AGNs often show linear features, called jets, both on pc as well as kpc scales. These jets supposedly possess relativistic motion and are oriented close to the line of sight of the observer and accordingly the relativistic Doppler beaming makes them look much brighter than they really are in their respective rest-frames. The flux boosting due to the relativistic beaming is a very sensitive factor of the jet orientation angle, as seen by the observer. Quite often large bends are seen in these jets, with misalignments being $90^\circ$ or more and might imply a change in the orienta…
We report the discovery of optical and X-ray synchrotron emission from the brighter radio jet in galaxy NGC 7385 using data from HST and Chandra. The jet has a projected length of 5 kpc and a similar morphology to other known optical jets in low-power radio galaxies. We also report a strong jet-cloud interaction which appears to be deflecting the counter-jet and causing a reversal in its direction.
We present 15 GHz stacked VLBA images of 373 jets associated with active galactic nuclei (AGN) having at least five observing epochs within a 20 yr time interval 1994-2015 from the MOJAVE programme and/or its precursor, the 2 cm VLBA Survey. These data are supplemented by 1.4 GHz single-epoch VLBA observations of 135 MOJAVE AGNs to probe larger scale jet structures. The typical jet geometry is found to be close to conical on scales from hundreds to thousands of parsecs, while a number of galaxies show quasi-parabolic streamlines on smaller scales. A true jet geometry in a considerable fraction…
We investigate the interaction between active galactic nuclei (AGN) jets and the intracluster medium (ICM) of galaxy clusters. Specifically, we study the efficiency with which jets can drive sound waves into the ICM. Previous works focused on this issue model the jet-ICM interaction as a spherically symmetric explosion, finding that <~ 12.5% of the blast energy is converted into sound waves, even for instantaneous energy injection. We develop a method for measuring sound wave energy in hydrodynamic simulations and measure the efficiency of sound wave driving by supersonic jets in a model ICM. …
There are still some important unanswered questions about the detailed particle acceleration and escape occurring during the quiescent epoches. As a result, the particle distribution that is adopted in the blazar quiescent spectral model have numerous unconstrained shapes. To help remedy this problem, we introduce a analytical particle transport model to reproduce quiescent broadband spectral energy distribution of blazar. In this model, the exact electron distribution is solved from a generalized transport equation that contains the terms describing first-order and secondary-order \emph{Fermi…
The goal of this paper is to derive signatures of synchrotron radiation from state-of-the-art simulation models of collimating relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) jets featuring a large-scale helical magnetic field. We perform axisymmetric special relativistic MHD simulations of the jet acceleration region using the PLUTO code. The computational domain extends from the slow magnetosonic launching surface of the disk up to 6000^2 Schwarzschild radii allowing to reach highly relativistic Lorentz factors. The Poynting dominated disk wind develops into a jet with Lorentz factors of 8 and is col…
Relativistic jets are collimated outflows with speeds close to light speed, which are associated with gamma-ray bursts (GRBs), active galactic nuclei (AGNs), and so on. This article mainly overviews recent developments of polarimetric studies of GRBs and their afterglows in the gamma-ray and optical wavebands as well as the first detections of their radio polarization. Polarimetric observations and theoretical modelings can address the emission mechanism, magnetic field structure, and energetics of GRB jets and related collisionless plasma physics. Some of the discussed key physics are common …
We present relativistic magnetohydrodynamic (RMHD) simulations of stationary overpressured magnetized relativistic jets which are characterized by their dominant type of energy, namely internal, kinetic, or magnetic. Each model is threaded by a helical magnetic field with a pitch angle of $45^\circ$ and features a series of recollimation shocks produced by the initial pressure mismatch, whose strength and number varies as a function of the dominant type of energy. We perform a study of the polarization signatures from these models by integrating the radiative transfer equations for synchrotron…
We explore possible physical origin of correlation between radio wave and very-high-energy neutrino emission in active galactic nuclei (AGN), suggested by recently reported evidence for correlation between neutrino arrival directions and positions of brightest radio-loud AGN. We show that such correlation is expected if both synchrotron emitting electrons and neutrinos originate from decays of charged pions produced in proton-proton interactions in parsec-scale relativistic jet propagating through circum-nuclear medium of the AGN.
We study the acceleration, transport, and emission of particles in relativistic jets. Localized stochastic particle acceleration, spatial diffusion, and synchrotron as well as synchrotron self-Compton emission are considered in a leptonic model. To account for inhomogeneity, we use a 2D axi-symmetric cylindrical geometry for both relativistic electrons and magnetic field. In this first phase of our work, we focus on steady-state spectra that develop from a time-dependent model. We demonstrate that small isolated acceleration region in a much larger emission volume are sufficient to accelerate …
Growing evidence suggests that synchrotron radiation plays a significant role in shaping the spectra of most $γ$-ray bursts. The relativistic jets producing them likely carry a significant fraction of energy in the form of a Poynting flux.
Synchrotron radio emission from non-relativistic jets powered by massive protostars has been reported, indicating the presence of relativistic electrons and magnetic fields of strength ~0.3-5 mG. We study diffusive shock acceleration and magnetic field amplification in protostellar jets with speeds between 300 and 1500 km/s. We show that the magnetic field in the synchrotron emitter can be amplified by the non-resonant hybrid (Bell) instability excited by the cosmic-ray streaming. By combining the synchrotron data with basic theory of Bell instability we estimate the magnetic field in the sync…
We suggest that stable states of positronium might exist in the jets of active galactic nuclei (AGN). Electrons and positrons are created near the accretion disks of supermassive black holes at the centers of AGN and are accelerated along magnetic field lines while within the {\sl Alfvén radius}. The conditions in this region are ideal for the creation of bound states of positronium which are stable against annihilation. Traveling at relativistic speeds along the jet, the helical magnetic field enables the atoms to survive for great distances.
Relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei (AGN) convert as much as half of their energy into radiation. To explore the poorly understood processes that are responsible for this conversion, we carry out fully 3D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) simulations of relativistic magnetized jets. Unlike the standard approach of injecting the jets at large radii, our simulated jets self-consistently form at the source and propagate and accelerate outward for several orders of magnitude in distance before they interact with the ambient medium. We find that this interaction can trigger strong energy dissipatio…
Recent detections of very-high-energy (VHE, E > 100 GeV) gamma-ray blazars which do not belong to the high frequency peaked BL Lac (HBL) class, suggest that gamma-gamma absorption and pair cascading might occur in those objects. In the presence of even weak magnetic fields, these Compton-supported pair cascades will be deflected and contribute to the Fermi gamma-ray flux of radio galaxies. We demonstrate that, in this scenario, the magnetic field can not be determined from a fit of the cascade emission to the gamma-ray spectrum alone, and the degeneracy can only be lifted if the synchrotron em…
We explore the formation, energetics, and geometry of relativistic jets along with the variability of their central engine. We study both fast and slowly rotating black holes and address our simulations to active galaxy (AGN) centers and gamma ray burst (GRB) engines. The structured jets are postulated to account for emission properties of high energy sources across the mass scale, launched from stellar mass black holes in GRBs and from supermassive black holes in AGNs. Their active cores contain magnetized accretion disks and rotation of the Kerr black hole provides a mechanism for jet launch…
Mechanical active galactic nucleus (AGN) feedback plays a key role in massive galaxies, galaxy groups and clusters. However, the energy content of AGN jets that mediate this feedback process is still far from clear. Here we present a preliminary study of radial elongations $τ$ of a large sample of X-ray cavities, which are apparently produced by mechanical AGN feedback. All the cavities in our sample are elongated along the angular (type-I) or jet directions (type-II), or nearly circular (type-III). The observed value of $τ$ roughly decreases as the cavities rise buoyantly, confirming the same…
Synchrotron radiation is commonly observed in connection with shocks of different velocities, ranging from relativistic shocks associated with active galactic nuclei, gamma-ray bursts or microquasars to weakly- or non-relativistic flows as those observed in supernova remnants. Recent observations of synchrotron emission in protostellar jets are important not only because they extend the range over which the acceleration process works, but also because they allow to determine the jet and/or interstellar magnetic field structure, thus giving insights on the jet ejection and collimation mechanism…
In this paper we develop the extended jet model of Potter & Cotter to model the simultaneous multi-wavelength spectra of six Compton-dominant blazars. We include an accelerating parabolic base transitioning to a slowly decelerating conical jet with a geometry set by observations of M87 and consistent with simulations and theory. We investigate several jet models and find that the optically thick to thin synchrotron break in the radio spectrum requires the jet to first come into equipartition at large distances along the jet (10^5 Schwarzschild radii), consistent with the observed transition fr…
