HST observations of the quasar PKS 0637-752: equipartition electron-proton jet from the most complete spectral coverage to date

Abstract

We present new NICMOS and ACS observations of the quasar jet PKS 0637-752, and we use them, together with existing multiwavelength observations, to produce the most complete spectral coverage of the source to date. We explore the implications of these observations in the context of models for the jet X-ray emission. By relaxing the assumption of equipartition, we undertake an exhaustive study of the parameter space for external Compton off the CMB (EC/CMB) model. We find that the multiwavelength observations exclude a magnetic field dominated jet. Using the method proposed by Georganopoulos et al. (2005) for probing the jet matter content we show that protons are needed for practically all jet configurations, extending a previous application of the method by Uchiyama et al. (2005) that was based on exploring three particular jet configurations. We also show that equipartition is the only configuration that can reproduce the observations and have one proton per radiating lepton. We finally present a rather model - independent argument that the jet has a spine-sheath flow pattern, with the spine being faster and emitting most of the IR-optical-X-ray emission.

ApJ, accepted

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Cited by in corpus (19)

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• Fermi Rules Out the IC/CMB Model for the Large Scale Jet X-ray Emission of 3C 273
• Periodic structure in the Mpc-scale jet of PKS 0637-752
• Theory of magnetically powered jets
• Modeling the Infrared Emission in Cygnus A
• Constraining the shear acceleration model for the X-ray emission of large-scale extragalactic jets
• Chandra Observations of the Radio Galaxy 3C 445 and the Hotspot X-ray Emission Mechanism
• The Spectacular Radio-Near-IR-X-ray Jet of 3C 111: X-ray Emission Mechanism and Jet Kinematics
• Deep Multiwaveband Observations of the Jets of 0208-512 and 1202-262
• Calorimetry of Active Galactic Nucleus jets: testing plasma composition in Cygnus A
• Evidence for a significant mixture of electron/positron pairs in FRII jets constrained by cocoon dynamics
• A Multi-Wavelength Study of the Jet, Lobes and Core of the Quasar PKS 2101-490
• Circumnuclear Dust in AP Librae and the source of its VHE emission
• Proton Synchrotron Radiation from Extended Jets of PKS 0637-752 and 3C 273
• The Luminous Blue Variable RMC127 as seen with ALMA and ATCA
• A Two Population Electron Synchrotron Model For Knots of Extended Jets
• Proper Motions in the sub-kiloparsec Jet of 3C 78: Novel Constraints on the Physical Nature of Relativistic Jets
• Inverse Compton Scattering of Radiation from a Central Source as a Possible Mechanism for the Formation of X-Ray Radiation from Kiloparsec Jets of Core-Dominated Quasars