The under-explored radio-loudness of quasars and the possibility of radio-source--environment interactions

Abstract

I demonstrate that radio observations in the literature to date of optically-selected quasars are largely inadequate to reveal the full extent of their jet-activity. I discuss a recent example of an optically-powerful quasar, which is radio-quiet according to all the standard classifications, which Blundell & Rawlings discovered to have a >100 kpc jet, and show that other than being the first FRI quasar to be identified, there is no reason to presume it is exceptional. I also discuss a possible new probe of accounting for the interactions of radio sources with their environments. This tool could help to avoid over-estimating magnetic fields strengths within cluster gas. I briefly describe recent analyses by Rudnick & Blundell which confront claims in the literature of cluster gas B-fields > 10 micro-G.

invited talk at "The Physics of Relativistic Jets in the CHANDRA and XMM Era", proceedings edited by G. Brunetti, D.E. Harris, R.M. Sambruna, and G. Setti, to be published in New Astronomy Reviews

References in corpus (2)

• Dynamical models for jet deceleration in the radio galaxy 3C 31
• Are the Faraday Rotating Magnetic Fields Local to Intracluster Radio Galaxies?

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Sources of the Radio Background Considered
• The $L_{\mathrm{x}}$-$L_{\mathrm{uv}}$-$L_{\mathrm{radio}}$ relation and corona-disk-jet connection in optically selected radio-loud quasars
• Multiwavelength XMM-Newton observations of the Laor et al. sample of PG quasars
• Spectral Energy Distributions of low-luminosity radio galaxies at z~1-3: a high-z view of the host/AGN connection
• High-resolution observations of SDSS J080800.99+483807.7 in the optical and radio domains. A possible example of jet-triggered star formation