Bibcode
Sambruna, R. M.; Maraschi, L.; Urry, C. M.; Tavecchio, F.; Scarpa, R.; Cheung, T.; Chartas, G.; Pesce, J. E.
Bibliographical reference
American Astronomical Society, 198th AAS Meeting, #17.03; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 33, p.811
Advertised on:
5
2001
Citations
0
Refereed citations
0
Description
The Chandra discovery of an X-ray bright jet in the "first light"
distant quasar PKS 0637-752 showed that the X-rays can be energetically
dominant even at large distances from the core, and sparked renewed
interest in jet physical properties. We recently suggested that the high
X-ray luminosities of the jets of PKS 0637-752 and the well-known quasar
3C 273 may be produced by inverse Compton scattering of the cosmic
microwave background by relativistic electrons in the jet, provided that
the emitting plasma is in bulk relativistic motion on kpc scales. Are
inverse Compton jets associated with higher redshifts sources? and what
are the implications for jet's physical properties -- magnetic fields,
beaming factors, radiative powers? To address these and other issues we
are currently performing a systematic survey in the X-rays and optical
of a well-designed sample of 17 radio jets, using Chandra and HST. The
Chandra images of the first half a dozen sources encouragingly show a
high detection rate ( ~ 67%) of the jet at X-rays, higher than at
optical (38%). We will report the results of the Chandra and HST
observations of the survey jets and discuss their implications.