Engineering topics

Georganopoulos, Markos

Publications and source records attributed to Georganopoulos, Markos.

9 records

NASA NTRS2016

The Spectacular Radio-Near-IR-X-Ray Jet of 3C 111: the X-Ray Emission Mechanism and Jet Kinematics

Relativistic jets are the most energetic manifestation of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) phenomenon. AGN jets are observed from the radio through gamma-rays and carry copious amounts of matter and energy from the subparsec central regions out to the kiloparsec and often megaparsec scale galaxy and cluster environs. While most spatially resolved jets are seen in the radio, an increasing number have been discovered to emit in the optical/near- IR and/or X-ray bands. Here we discuss a spectacular example of this class, the 3C 111 jet, housed in one of the nearest, double-lobed FR II radio galaxies known. We discuss new, deep Chandra and Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations that reveal both near-IR and X-ray emission from several components of the 3C 111 jet, as well as both the northern and southern hotspots. Important differences are seen between the morphologies in the radio, X-ray, and near-IR bands. The long (over 100 kpc on each side), straight nature of this jet makes it an excellent prototype for future, deep observations, as it is one of the longest such features seen in the radio, near-IR/optical, and X-ray bands. Several independent lines of evidence, including the X-ray and broadband spectral shape as well as the implied velocity of the approaching hotspot, lead us to strongly disfavor the EC/CMB model and instead favor a two-component synchrotron model to explain the observed X-ray emission for several jet components. Future observations with NuSTAR, HST, and Chandra will allow us to further constrain the emission mechanisms.

galaxies: active â€“ galaxies: jets â€“ radio cont↗

NASA NTRS2013

A Method for Localizing Energy Dissipation in Blazars Using Fermi Variability

The distance of the Fermi-detected blazar gamma-ray emission site from the supermassive black hole is a matter of active debate. Here we present a method for testing if the GeV emission of powerful blazars is produced within the sub-pc scale broad line region (BLR) or farther out in the pc-scale molecular torus (MT) environment. If the GeV emission takes place within the BLR, the inverse Compton (IC) scattering of the BLR ultraviolet (UV) seed photons that produces the gamma-rays takes place at the onset of the Klein-Nishina regime. This causes the electron cooling time to become practically energy independent and the variation of the gamma-ray emission to be almost achromatic. If on the other hand the -ray emission is produced farther out in the pc-scale MT, the IC scattering of the infrared (IR) MT seed photons that produces the gamma-rays takes place in the Thomson regime, resulting to energy-dependent electron cooling times, manifested as faster cooling times for higher Fermi energies. We demonstrate these characteristics and discuss the applicability and limitations of our method.

Dotson, Amanda↗

NASA NTRS2012

Collective Evidence for Inverse Compton Emission from External Photons in High-Power Blazars

We present the first collective evidence that Fermi-detected jets of high kinetic power (L(sub kin)) are dominated by inverse Compton emission from upscattered external photons. Using a sample with a broad range in orientation angle, including radio galaxies and blazars, we find that very high power sources (L(sub kin) > 10(exp 45.5) erg/s) show a significant increase in the ratio of inverse Compton to synchrotron power (Compton dominance) with decreasing orientation angle, as measured by the radio core dominance and confirmed by the distribution of superluminal speeds. This increase is consistent with beaming expectations for external Compton (EC) emission, but not for synchrotron self Compton (SSC) emission. For the lowest power jets (L(sub kin) < 10(exp 43.5) erg /s), no trend between Compton and radio core dominance is found, consistent with SSC. Importantly, the EC trend is not seen for moderately high power flat spectrum radio quasars with strong external photon fields. Coupled with the evidence that jet power is linked to the jet speed, this finding suggests that external photon fields become the dominant source of seed photons in the jet comoving frame only for the faster and therefore more powerful jets.

INVERSE↗

NASA NTRS2012

From the Blazar Sequence to the Blazar Envelope: Revisiting the Relativistic Jet Dichotomy in Radio-Loud AGN

We revisit the concept of a blazar sequence that relates the synchrotron peak frequency (Vpeak) in blazars with synchrotron peak luminosity (Lpeak, in vLv) using a large sample of radio-loud AGN. We present observational evidence that the blazar sequence is formed from two populations in the synchrotron Vpeak - Lpeak plane, each forming an upper edge to an envelope of progressively misaligned blazars, and connecting to an adjacent group of radio galaxies having jets viewed at much larger angles to the line of sight. When binned by jet kinetic power (Lkin; as measured through a scaling relationship with extended radio power), we find that radio core dominance decreases with decreasing synchrotron Lpeak, revealing that sources in the envelope are generally more misaligned. We find population-based evidence of velocity gradients in jets at low kinetic powers (approximately 10(exp 42) - 10(exp 44.5) erg s(exp -1)), corresponding to FR I radio galaxies and most BL Lacs. These low jet power 'weak jet' sources, thought to exhibit radiatively inefficient accretion, are distinguished from the population of non-decelerating, low synchrotron-peaking (LSP) blazars and FR II radio galaxies ('strong' jets) which are thought to exhibit radiatively efficient accretion. The two-population interpretation explains the apparent contradiction of the existence of highly core-dominated, low-power blazars at both low and high synchrotron peak frequencies, and further implies that most intermediate synchrotron peak (ISP) sources are not intermediate in intrinsic jet power between LSP and high synchrotron-peaking (HSP) sources, but are more misaligned versions of HSP sources with similar jet powers.

Meyer, Eileen T.↗

NASA NTRS2011

A Diagnostic Test for Determining the Location of the GeV Emission in Powerful Blazars

An issue currently under debate in the literature is how far from the black hole is the Fermi-observed GeV emission of powerful blazars emitted. Here we present a clear diagnostic tool for testing whether the Ge V emission site is located within the sub-pc broad emission line (BLR) region or further out in the few pc scale molecular torus (MT) environment. Within the BLR the scatteri~ takes place at the onset of the Klein-Nishina regime, causing the electron cooling time to become almost energy independent and as a result, the variation of high-energy emission is expected to be achromatic. Contrarily, if the emission site is located outside the BLR, the expected GeY variability is energy-dependent and with amplitude increasing with energy. We demonstrate this using time-dependent numerical simulations of blazar variability.

Dotson, Amanda↗

NASA NTRS2011

Optical Polarization and Spectral Variability in the M87 Jet

During the last decade, M87's jet has been the site of an extraordinary variability event, with one knot (HST-1) increasing by over a factor 100 in brightness. Variability was also seen on timescales of months in the nuclear flux. Here we discuss the optical-UV polarization and spectral variability of these components, which show vastly different behavior. HST -1 shows a highly significant correlation between flux and polarization, with P increasing from approx 20% at minimum to > 40% at maximum, while the orientation of its electric vector stayed constant. HST-l's optical-UV spectrum is very hard (alpha(sub uv-0) approx. 0.5, F(sub v) varies as (v(exp -alpha)), and displays "hard lags" during epochs 2004.9-2005.5, including the peak of the flare, with soft lags at later epochs. We interpret the behavior of HST-1 as enhanced particle acceleration in a shock, with cooling from both particle aging and the relaxation of the compression. We set 2alpha upper limits of 0.5 delta parsecs and 1.02c on the size and advance speed of the flaring region. The slight deviation of the electric vector orientation from the jet PA, makes it likely that on smaller scales the flaring region has either a double or twisted structure. By contrast, the nucleus displays much more rapid variability, with a highly variable electric vector orientation and 'looping' in the (I, P) plane. The nucleus has a much steeper spectrum ((alpha(sub uv-0) approx. 1.5) but does not show UV-optical spectral variability. Its behavior can be interpreted as either a helical distortion to a steady jet or a shock propagating through a helical jet.

Perlman, Eric S.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Witnessing the Gradual Slowdown of Powerful Extragalactic Jets: The X-Ray-Optical-Radio Connection

A puzzling feature of the Chandra-detected quasar jets is that their X-ray emission decreases faster along the jet than their radio emission, resulting from an outward-increasing radio-to-X-ray ratio. In some sources this behavior is so extreme that the radio emission peak is located clearly downstream of that of the X-rays. This is a rather unanticipated behavior given that the inverse Compton nature of the X-rays and the synchrotron radio emission are attributed to roughly the same electrons of the jet's nonthermal electron distribution. In this letter we show that this morphological behavior can result from the gradual deceleration of a relativistic flow and that the offsets in peak emission at different wavelengths carry the imprint of this deceleration. This notion is consistent with another recent finding, namely, that the jets feeding the terminal hot spots of powerful radio galaxies and quasars are still relativistic with Lorentz factors GAMMA approximately 2-3. The picture of the kinematics of powerful jets emerging from these considerations is that they remain relativistic as they gradually decelerate from kiloparsec scales to the hot spots, where, in a final collision with the intergalactic medium, they slow down rapidly to the subrelativistic velocities of the hot spot advance speed.

Georganopoulos, Markos↗

NASA NTRS2004

Bulk Comptonization of the Cosmic Microwave Background by Extragalactic Jets as a Probe of their Matter Content

We propose a method for estimating the composition, i.e. the relative amounts of leptons and protons, of extragalactic jets which exhibit Chandra - detected knots in their kpc scale jets. The method relies on measuring, or setting upper limits on, the component of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation that is bulk-Comptonized by the cold electrons in the relativistically flowing jet. These measurements, along with modeling of the broadband knot emission that constrain the bulk Lorentz factor GAMMA of the jets, can yield estimates of the jet power carried by protons and leptons. We provide an explicit calculation of the spectrum of the bulk-Comptonized (BC) CMB component and apply these results to PKS 0637 - 752 and 3C 273, two superluminal quasars with Chandra - detected large scale jets. What makes these sources particularly suited for such a procedure is the absence of significant non-thermal jet emission in the 'bridge', the region between the core and the first bright jet knot, which guarantees that most of the electrons are cold there, leaving the BC scattered CMB radiation as the only significant source of photons in this region. At lambda = 3.6 - 8.0 microns, the most likely band to observe the BC scattered CMB emission, the Spitzer angular resolution (approximately 1" - 3") is considerably smaller than the the 'bridges' of these jets (approximately 10"), making it possible to both measure and resolve this emission.

Georganopoulos, Markos↗

NASA NTRS1998

A Viewing Angle-Kinetic Luminosity Scheme for BL Lacertae Objects

We propose a unified classification for BL Lacertae objects (BLs), focusing on the synchrotron peak frequency of the spectral energy distribution. The unification scheme is based on the angle theta that describes the orientation of the relativistic jet and on the electron kinetic luminosity Lamba(sub kin) of the jet. We assume that Lamba(sub kin) scales with the size of the jet (r) in a self-similar fashion (Lamba(sub kin) is proportional to r(exp 2)), as supported by observational data. The jets are self-similar in geometry and have the same pressure and median magnetic field at the inlet, independent of size. The self-similarity is broken for the highest energy electrons, which radiate mainly at high frequencies, since for large sources they suffer more severe radiative energy losses over a given fraction of the jet length. We calculate the optically thin synchrotron spectrum using an accelerating inner jet model based on simple relativistic gas dynamics and show that it can fit the observed infrared-to-X-ray spectrum of PKS 2155-304. We couple the accelerating jet model to the unification scheme and compare the results to complete samples of BLs. The negative apparent evolution of X-ray-selected BLs is explained as a result of positive evolution of the jet electron kinetic luminosity Lamba(sub kin). We review observational arguments in favor of the existence of scaled-down accretion disks and broad emission-line regions in BLs. The proposed unification scheme can explain the lack of observed broad emission lines in X-ray-selected BLs as well as the existence of those lines preferentially in luminous radio-selected BLs. Finally, we review observational arguments that suggest the extension of this unification scheme to all blazars.

Georganopoulos, Markos↗