The Jet of 3c 273: its Morphology and the Nature of the Local Particle Acceleration Mechanism(s)

Details The Jet of 3c 273: its Morphology and the Nature of the Local Particle Acceleration Mechanism(s) The Jet of 3c 273: its Morphology and the Nature of the Local Particle Acceleration Mechanism(s)

Jul 1995

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1995hst..prop.5980r&link_type=abstract

HST Proposal ID #5980

Mathematics

Logic

Hst Proposal Id #5980 Agn

Scientific paper

Ground and space based observations of the 3C273 jet have revealed a complex structure. The optically faint compact radio hot spot, the optically quiet radio lobe/halo and the low brightness level in the inner part of the jet are morphological features not understood within our standard picture of extragalactic radio sources. Most puzzling we have to invoke particle acceleration all over the jet and not only in the strong hot spot or compact knots. This is due to the short life time of optically radiating relativistic particles. Highly resolved radio maps reveal structure with angular scales down to the 0.1" level. As it is the high-frequency information which gives the most stringent constraints on the physics at work, a detailed analysis thus has to rely on HST. We propose to obtain deep images in two filters to construct an optical spectral index map at 0.1" resolution. This map will allow a detailed radio/optical comparison to trace places of particle acceleration. As we know from ground based observations the synchrotron spectra exhibit a cutoff, which happens to lie in the IR-optical regime. Thus the optical spectral index is a sensitive indicator for changes in this cutoff frequency, which in turn maps changes in the maximum energy of the relativistic particles i.e. the acceleration efficiency. By comparison with total intensity and polarization maps we should get hints at the basic acceleration mechanism at work.

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