Astronomy and Astrophysics – Astronomy
Scientific paper
Jan 2010
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2010aas...21532407m&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #215, #324.07; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 42, p.421
Astronomy and Astrophysics
Astronomy
Scientific paper
Our comprehensive multi-waveband monitoring program of blazars reveals that flares occur at various locations in the relativistic jet. Inverse Compton scattering of infrared and optical photons from both the ultra-fast spine and slower sheath causes long-term outbursts and sudden eruptions of gamma-ray emission as a superluminal knot propagates through the inner jet, passes the core, and then continues downstream. Some of these events are accompanied by X-ray and lower-frequency flares. For example, a very high-amplitude, short-lived, multi-waveband outburst occurs as the knot passes through the mm-wave core, which is most likely a system of standing oblique shocks. The optical linear polarization vector rotates as the disturbance traverses the inner jet. This suggests that the knot follows a helical trajectory through a toroidal magnetic field until it reaches the core. Such a scenario is in accord with predictions of magnetohydrodynamical models for the formation, acceleration, and collimation of highly relativistic jets.
This research was supported in part by NASA through Fermi grants NNX08AV65G and NNX08AV61G and ADP grant NNX08AJ64G, and by NSF grant AST-0907893.
Agudo Iv'an
Aller Margo F.
Gurwell Mark
Jorstad Svetlana G.
Lahteenmaki Anne
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