Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-5wvtr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-20T04:12:04.411Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Do Relativistic Electrons Either Gain or Lose Energy, Outside of Extragalactic Nuclei?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Lawrence Rudnick ,
Debora M. Katz-Stone  and
Martha C. Anderson
Lawrence Rudnick
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Debora M. Katz-Stone
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455
Martha C. Anderson
Affiliation:
Department of Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

In the generally accepted models of high-luminosity extragalactic radio sources, the relativistic electron distribution evolves significantly outside of its source in the galactic nucleus; synchrotron losses occur throughout the source, and the harder (flatter) spectra seen in the hot spots are one indicator of relativistic particle acceleration. Our reanalysis and interpretation of the Carilli et al. (1991) data on Cygnus A, on the other hand, showed no evidence for evolution of the electron distribution function, and no evidence of the universally assumed injection power-law distribution. Having found a spectrum that describes an entire source, we have also introduced the technique of correcting synchrotron maps for frequency-dependent effects. In this way, a partial deconvolution of the underlying physical parameters is possible. In Cygnus A, this correction procedure led to the dominance of a hitherto unrecognized structure, an edge-brightened channel girdled by rings. We briefly discuss some implications of this work and our plans to continue this line of investigation.

Subject headings: acceleration of particles — galaxies: individual (Cygnus A) — galaxies: nuclei — radiation mechanisms: nonthermal — radio continuum: galaxies

Type
Poster Papers
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 142: Particle Acceleration Phenomena in Astrophysical Plasmas , 1994 , pp. 955 - 958
Copyright
Copyright © The American Astronomical Society 1994

References

Biretta, J.A., Stern, C.P., & Harris, D.E. 1991, AJ, 342, 128 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carili, C., & Perley, R.A. 1978, ApJ, 224, 39 Google Scholar
Fraix-Burnet, D. 1992, A&A, 259, 445 Google Scholar
Katz-Stone, D., & Rudnick, L. 1993, preprintGoogle Scholar
Katz-Stone, D.S., Rudnick, L., & Anderson, M.C. 1993, ApJ, 407, 549 Google Scholar
Leahy, J.P. 1991, in Beams and Jets in Astrophysics, ed. Hughes, P.A. (Cambridge Univ. Press), 100 Google Scholar
Liu, R., Pooley, G.G., & Riley, J.M. 1992, MNRAS, 257, 545 Google Scholar
Marscher, A.P. 1987, in Superluminal Radio Sources, ed. Zensus, J.A. & Pearson, T.J. (Cambridge Univ. Press), 280 Google Scholar
Meisenheimer, K., et al. 1989, A&A, 219, 63 Google Scholar
O’Donoghue, A., Owen, F.N., & Eilek, J.A. 1990, ApJS, 72, 75 Google Scholar
Pedelty, J.A., Rudnick, L., McCarthy, P.J., & Spinrad, H. 1989, AJ, 98, 1232 Google Scholar
Rudnick, L., Saslaw, W.C., Crane, P., & Tyson, J.A. 1981, ApJ, 246, 647 Google Scholar
Simkin, S. 1978, ApJ, 234, 56 Google Scholar