Open AccessNewChandraObservations of the Jet in 3C 273. I. Softer X‐Ray than Radio Spectra and the X‐Ray Emission Mechanism
Author(s) -
Sebastian Jester,
D. E. Harris,
Herman L. Marshall,
Klaus Meisenheimer
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
the astrophysical journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.376
H-Index - 489
eISSN - 1538-4357
pISSN - 0004-637X
DOI - 10.1086/505962
Subject(s) - physics , astrophysics , jet (fluid) , compton scattering , spectral line , synchrotron , particle acceleration , cosmic microwave background , brightness , quasar , photon , radio galaxy , astronomy , electron , optics , galaxy , nuclear physics , anisotropy , thermodynamics
The jet in 3C273 is a high-power quasar jet with radio, optical and X-rayemission whose size and brightness allow a detailed study of the emissionprocesses acting in it. We present deep Chandra observations of this jet andanalyse the spectral properties of the jet emission from radio through X-rays.We find that the X-ray spectra are significantly softer than the radio spectrain all regions of the bright part of the jet except for the first bright "knotA", ruling out a model in which the X-ray emission from the entire jet arisesfrom beamed inverse-Compton scattering of cosmic microwave background photonsin a single-zone jet flow. Within two-zone jet models, we find that asynchrotron origin for the jet's X-rays requires fewer additional assumptionsthan an inverse-Compton model, especially if velocity shear leads to efficientparticle acceleration in jet flows.Comment: 11 pages, 5 figures, emulateapj. Accepted by Ap
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