Isolating the physical parameters of synchrotron sources

Details Isolating the physical parameters of synchrotron sources Isolating the physical parameters of synchrotron sources

May 1994

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1994apj...426..116k&link_type=abstract

Astrophysical Journal, Part 1 (ISSN 0004-637X), vol. 426, no. 1, p. 116-122

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

19

Brightness Distribution, Electron Energy, Electrons, Emissivity, Magnetic Flux, Optical Correction Procedure, Parameter Identification, Radio Galaxies, Radio Jets (Astronomy), Synchrotron Radiation, Astronomical Maps, Astronomical Photometry, Radio Astronomy, Red Shift, Relativity

Scientific paper

We introduce a technique to correct synchrotron brightness maps for their dependence on observing frequency. This correction depends on the shape or 'colors' of the synchrotron spectrum and corresponds to the K-correction used for photmetry of redshifted galaxies. Using this corrected map and a spectral index map, we are able to isolate the contributions of pairs of the three physical parameters: the number of relativistic electrons along the line of sight, NT; the magnetic field strength, B; and a fiducial energy, gamma0, that characterizes the electron energy distribution. Thus by constructing maps of NT/(gamma0)2), ((gamma0)2)(B)), and NT(B) and looking for differences in the maps of these three quantities, we can, in principle, determine the parameter that dominates the emissivity for a given feature. We have applied this technique to the Carilli et al. (1991) maps of the radio galaxy Cygnus A. The resulting color-corrected map of the eastern lobe is dominated by an edge-brightened channel which straddles the counterjet, is itself girdled by rings, and is seen at low contrast in the original maps. No counterpart to this channel has yet been seen in two-dimensional or three-dimensional jet simulations. Our analysis leads us to conclude that it is dominated by a density enhancement.

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