No Arabic abstract
We have made a 30 ksec Chandra observation of the redshift z=0.63 GPS quasar B2 0738+313. We detected X-ray emission from the core and have discovered a 200 kpc (projected on the sky) X-ray jet. The X-ray jet is narrow and curves, following the extended radio structure to the south of the quasar, and ending with a hot spot at the southernmost part of the radio lobe. The jet has a knot at ~13 arcsec away from the core. The knot emission is consistent with the X-rays being created by the inverse Compton scattering of the cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons and requires jet bulk Lorentz factors of a few (Gamma_{bulk} ~ 5-7). We discuss the emission mechanisms that may be responsible for the jet emission. We present new VLA data of the core and jet, and discuss the relation between the extended radio and X-ray emission. Extended emission observed in several GPS sources has been interpreted as a signature of the source past activity, while the GPS source is young and newly expanded. We argue that B2~0738+313 may be an example of a new class of radio sources similar to the FRII radio galaxies in their high jet bulk velocities, but with the powerful GPS-like nucleus. B2 0738+313 also has two damped Lyman-alpha systems along the line of sight, at z_{abs} = 0.0912 and 0.2212. We discuss the possible connection between the X-ray absorption (7.2+/-0.9 e20 cm(-2)) detected in the ACIS spectrum and these two intervening absorbers. We also investigate an extended structure within the central 10 arcsec of the core in the relation to structure seen in the optical.
This letter reports rich X-ray jet structures found in the Chandra observation of PKS 1055+201. In addition to an X-ray jet coincident with the radio jet we detect a region of extended X-ray emission surrounding the jet as far from the core as the radio hotspot to the North, and a similar extended X-ray region along the presumed path of the unseen counterjet to the Southern radio lobe. Both X-ray regions show a similar curvature to the west, relative to the quasar. We interpret this as the first example where we separately detect the X-ray emission from a narrow jet and extended, residual jet plasma over the entire length of a powerful FRII jet.
Chandra observations of the low-energy peaked BL Lac object AP Librae revealed the clear discovery of a non-thermal X-ray jet. AP Lib is the first low energy peaked BL Lac object with an extended non-thermal X-ray jet that shows emission into the VHE range. The X-ray jet has an extension of ~15 (~ 14 kpc). The X-ray jet morphology is similar to the radio jet observed with VLA at 1.36 GHz emerging in south-east direction and bends by 50 degrees at a distance of 12 towards north-east. The intensity profiles of the X-ray emission are studied consistent with those found in the radio range. The spectral analysis reveals that the X-ray spectra of the core and jet region are both inverse Compton dominated. This adds to a still small sample of BL Lac objects whose X-ray jets are IC dominated and thus more similar to the high luminosity FRII sources than to the low luminosity FRI objects, which are usually considered to be the parent population of the BL Lac objects.
The quasar PKS 0637-753, the first celestial X-ray target of the Chandra X-ray Observatory, has revealed asymmetric X-ray structure extending from 3 to 12 arcsec west of the quasar, coincident with the inner portion of the jet previously detected in a 4.8 GHz radio image (Tingay et al. 1998). At a redshift of z=0.651, the jet is the largest (~100 kpc) and most luminous (~10^{44.6} ergs/s) of the few so far detected in X-rays. This letter presents a high resolution X-ray image of the jet, from 42 ks of data when PKS 0637-753 was on-axis and ACIS-S was near the optimum focus. For the inner portion of the radio jet, the X-ray morphology closely matches that of new ATCA radio images at 4.8 and 8.6 GHz. Observations of the parsec scale core using the VSOP space VLBI mission show structure aligned with the X-ray jet, placing important constraints on the X-ray source models. HST images show that there are three small knots coincident with the peak radio and X-ray emission. Two of these are resolved, which we use to estimate the sizes of the X-ray and radio knots. The outer portion of the radio jet, and a radio component to the east, show no X-ray emission to a limit of about 100 times lower flux. The X-ray emission is difficult to explain with models that successfully account for extra-nuclear X-ray/radio structures in other active galaxies. We think the most plausible is a synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model, but this would imply extreme departures from the conventional minimum-energy and/or homogeneity assumptions. We also rule out synchrotron or thermal bremsstrahlung models for the jet X-rays, unless multicomponent or ad hoc geometries are invoked.
With its exquisite spatial resolution of better than 0.5 arcsecond, the Chandra observatory is uniquely capable of resolving and studying the spatial structure of extragalactic X-ray jets on scales of a few to a few hundred kilo-parsec. Our analyses of four recent Chandra images of quasar jets interpret the X-ray emission as inverse Compton scattering of high energy electrons on the cosmic microwave background. We infer that these jets are in bulk relativistic motion, carrying kinetic powers upwards of 10^46 ergs/s to distances of hundreds of kpc, with very high efficiency.
We report the first measurement of the X-ray spectrum of the z = 5.99 quasar SDSSp J130608.26+035626.3 from a 120 ks observation by the Chandra ACIS-S instrument. Between 0.5 and 7 keV, corresponding to 3.5--49 keV in the quasar rest frame, we find an energy index of 0.86 +/- 0.2, consistent with the typical indices found for radio quiet quasars at lower redshifts, and inconsistent with the index required to match the diffuse X-ray background. We have a weak indication of a redshifted Fe-K line. In comparing the counting rate between an earlier, short observation and the longer observation reported here, we find evidence for source variability at the 99.9% confidence level. We note that other nearby X-ray sources would bias the measured alpha_{ox} = 1.70 by -0.09 if the X-ray flux were determined from within a 60 extraction circle. Our results for the energy index and the alpha_{ox} are consistent with no strong evolution in the active galactic nucleus emission mechanism with redshift out to z ~ 6, and therefore with the picture that massive black holes have already formed less than 1 Gyr after the big bang.