Limit to the Positron Content of the Jet in 3C 120 from INTEGRAL and mm-Wave VLBI Observations

Details Limit to the Positron Content of the Jet in 3C 120 from INTEGRAL and mm-Wave VLBI Observations Limit to the Positron Content of the Jet in 3C 120 from INTEGRAL and mm-Wave VLBI Observations

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006aas...20923905m&link_type=abstract

2007 AAS/AAPT Joint Meeting, American Astronomical Society Meeting 209, #239.05; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society,

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

We report an attempt to detect the redshifted 511 keV electron-positron annihilation line from the radio galaxy 3C 120, in which the jet interacts strongly with interstellar clouds. Such interactions should cause most of the jet plasma to mix with the gas in the clouds. This will thermalize the majority of any positrons in the jet, leading to continuous annihilation with
ambient electrons. We derive the number density of the combined electron-positron population in the core and compact knots in the jet of 3C 120 using ultra-high resolution observations with the Global mm-VLBI Array at 86 GHz and the Very Long Baseline Array at 43 GHz, along with the millimeter-wave continuum spectrum. If the jet contains a pure pair plasma, the production rate of positrons required to produce this density plus the efficiency of eventual annihilation predict a high luminosity in a narrow emission line at an energy of 495 keV in the observer's frame. Our spectral observations with the SPI instrument on INTEGRAL failed to detect the line. The upper limit constrains the maximum positron-to-proton ratio in the jet of 3C 120.
This research was funded in part by the National Science Foundation through grant AST-0406865 and by NASA through INTEGRAL Guest Investigator Program grant NNG05GN23G.

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