Unraveling the Physics of Quasar Jets: Optical Polarimetry and Implications for the X-ray Emission Process
Since the launch of Chandra twenty years ago, one of the greatest mysteries surrounding Quasar Jets is the production mechanism for their extremely high X-ray luminosity. Two mechanisms have been proposed. In the first view, the X-ray emission is inverse-Comptonized CMB photons. This view requires a...
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doaj-c4095c8db4434e559f21fcab950773e62020-11-25T03:47:25ZengMDPI AGGalaxies2075-44342020-09-018717110.3390/galaxies8040071Unraveling the Physics of Quasar Jets: Optical Polarimetry and Implications for the X-ray Emission ProcessEric S. Perlman0Devon Clautice1Sayali Avachat2Mihai Cara3William B. Sparks4Markos Georganopoulos5Eileen Meyer6Department of Physics and Space Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL 32901, USADepartment of Physics and Space Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL 32901, USADepartment of Physics and Space Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, FL 32901, USASpace Telescope Science Institute, Space Telescope Science Institute, Mountain View, CA 94043, USASpace Telescope Science Institute, Space Telescope Science Institute, Mountain View, CA 94043, USASpace Telescope Science Institute, Space Telescope Science Institute, Mountain View, CA 94043, USADepartment of Physics, University of Maryland, Baltimore, MD 21250, USASince the launch of Chandra twenty years ago, one of the greatest mysteries surrounding Quasar Jets is the production mechanism for their extremely high X-ray luminosity. Two mechanisms have been proposed. In the first view, the X-ray emission is inverse-Comptonized CMB photons. This view requires a jet that is highly relativistic (bulk Lorentz factor >20–40) on scales of hundreds of kiloparsecs, and a jet that is comparably or more powerful than the black hole’s Eddington luminosity. The second possibility is synchrotron emission from a high-energy population of electrons. This requires a much less powerful jet that does not need to be relativistically beamed, but it imposes other extreme requirements, namely the need to accelerate particles to >100 TeV energies at distances of hundreds of kiloparsecs from the active nucleus. We are exploring these questions using a suite of observations from a diverse group of telescopes, including the <i>Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Chandra</i> X-ray Observatory <i>(CXO), Fermi</i> Gamma-ray Space Telescope and various radio telescope arrays. Our results strongly favor the hypothesis that the X-ray emission is synchrotron radiation from a separate, high-energy electron population. We discuss the observations, results and new questions brought up by these surprising results. We investigate the physical processes and magnetic field structure that may help to accelerate particles to such extreme energies.https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4434/8/4/71galaxies: activegalaxies: jetsquasars: individual: 3C 273quasars: individual: PKS 0637-752quasars: individual1150+497 |
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DOAJ |
language |
English |
format |
Article |
sources |
DOAJ |
author |
Eric S. Perlman Devon Clautice Sayali Avachat Mihai Cara William B. Sparks Markos Georganopoulos Eileen Meyer |
spellingShingle |
Eric S. Perlman Devon Clautice Sayali Avachat Mihai Cara William B. Sparks Markos Georganopoulos Eileen Meyer Unraveling the Physics of Quasar Jets: Optical Polarimetry and Implications for the X-ray Emission Process Galaxies galaxies: active galaxies: jets quasars: individual: 3C 273 quasars: individual: PKS 0637-752 quasars: individual 1150+497 |
author_facet |
Eric S. Perlman Devon Clautice Sayali Avachat Mihai Cara William B. Sparks Markos Georganopoulos Eileen Meyer |
author_sort |
Eric S. Perlman |
title |
Unraveling the Physics of Quasar Jets: Optical Polarimetry and Implications for the X-ray Emission Process |
title_short |
Unraveling the Physics of Quasar Jets: Optical Polarimetry and Implications for the X-ray Emission Process |
title_full |
Unraveling the Physics of Quasar Jets: Optical Polarimetry and Implications for the X-ray Emission Process |
title_fullStr |
Unraveling the Physics of Quasar Jets: Optical Polarimetry and Implications for the X-ray Emission Process |
title_full_unstemmed |
Unraveling the Physics of Quasar Jets: Optical Polarimetry and Implications for the X-ray Emission Process |
title_sort |
unraveling the physics of quasar jets: optical polarimetry and implications for the x-ray emission process |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
series |
Galaxies |
issn |
2075-4434 |
publishDate |
2020-09-01 |
description |
Since the launch of Chandra twenty years ago, one of the greatest mysteries surrounding Quasar Jets is the production mechanism for their extremely high X-ray luminosity. Two mechanisms have been proposed. In the first view, the X-ray emission is inverse-Comptonized CMB photons. This view requires a jet that is highly relativistic (bulk Lorentz factor >20–40) on scales of hundreds of kiloparsecs, and a jet that is comparably or more powerful than the black hole’s Eddington luminosity. The second possibility is synchrotron emission from a high-energy population of electrons. This requires a much less powerful jet that does not need to be relativistically beamed, but it imposes other extreme requirements, namely the need to accelerate particles to >100 TeV energies at distances of hundreds of kiloparsecs from the active nucleus. We are exploring these questions using a suite of observations from a diverse group of telescopes, including the <i>Hubble Space Telescope (HST), Chandra</i> X-ray Observatory <i>(CXO), Fermi</i> Gamma-ray Space Telescope and various radio telescope arrays. Our results strongly favor the hypothesis that the X-ray emission is synchrotron radiation from a separate, high-energy electron population. We discuss the observations, results and new questions brought up by these surprising results. We investigate the physical processes and magnetic field structure that may help to accelerate particles to such extreme energies. |
topic |
galaxies: active galaxies: jets quasars: individual: 3C 273 quasars: individual: PKS 0637-752 quasars: individual 1150+497 |
url |
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4434/8/4/71 |
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