Physical conditions in the compact heads of powerful radio sources

Details Physical conditions in the compact heads of powerful radio sources Physical conditions in the compact heads of powerful radio sources

Jan 1980

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1980a%26a....81..328g&link_type=abstract

Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 81, no. 3, Jan. 1980, p. 328-332. Research supported by the Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung.

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

6

Astrophysics, Emission Spectra, Galactic Structure, Line Spectra, Magnetic Flux, Radio Galaxies, Astronomical Models, Filaments, Light Emission, Nonthermal Radiation, Relativistic Particles, Thermal Emission, Thermal Plasmas

Scientific paper

Some possible implications of the recent discovery of optical line emission from the head of the double radio source 3C 33 are discussed. Physical parameters of the head are derived in terms of a model in which both thermal optical emission and nonthermal radio emission from the head actually arise in numerous magnetized filaments of thermal plasma injected by a comoving compact body into an ambient medium of relativistic electron gas filling the head. An equipartition between the magnetic and thermal energy densities in the filaments is considered. The degree of clumping (filling-factor) of the thermal gas into the filaments is shown to be constrained to greater than 0.01 by the observed widths of optical emission lines from the head. This, combined with the measured H beta intensity, sets a lower limit of approximately 10 to the 7th solar masses to the mass of thermal gas in the head. The energy of relativistic electrons in the head appears to be one to two orders of magnitude greater than the minimum energy computed on the usual assumption of equipartition between relativistic electron and magnetic field energies. The possibility of refining these estimates by further observational and theoretical work is discussed.

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