Where Centaurus A gets its X-ray knottiness

Abstract

We report an X-ray spectral study of the transverse structure of the Centaurus A jet using new data from the Chandra Cen A Very Large Project. We find that the spectrum steepens with increasing distance from the jet axis, and that this steepening can be attributed to a change in the average spectrum of the knotty emission. Such a trend is unexpected if the knots are predominantly a surface feature residing in a shear layer between faster and slower flows. We suggest that the spectral steepening of the knot emission as a function of distance from the jet axis is due to knot migration, implying a component of transverse motion of knots within the flow.

Accepted for publication in ApJ (Letters)

References in corpus (3)

• New results on particle acceleration in the Centaurus A jet and counterjet from a deep Chandra observation
• The inner jet of radio galaxy NGC 315 as observed with Chandra and the VLA
• Low-Mass X-ray Binaries and Globular Clusters in Centaurus A

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• Evidence for Non-Hydrostatic Gas Motions in the Hot ISM of Centaurus A
• A Transient Black-Hole Low-Mass X-Ray Binary Candidate in Centaurus A