Spitzer IRAC Imaging of the Relativistic Jet from Superluminal Quasar PKS 0637-752

Abstract

Emission from the relativistic jet located at hundreds of kpc from the core of the superluminal quasar PKS 0637-752 was detected at 3.6 and 5.8 microns with the Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) on the Spitzer Space Telescope. The unprecedented sensitivity and arcsecond resolution of IRAC allows us to explore the mid-infrared emission from kiloparsec-scale quasar jets for the first time. The mid-infrared flux from the jet knots, when combined with radio and optical fluxes, confirms a synchrotron origin of the radio-to-optical emission and constrains very well the high energy end of the nonthermal electron distribution. Assuming the X-rays are produced in the relativistically moving knots via inverse Compton scattering of cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation, the infrared observation puts constraints on the matter content of the quasar extended jet. Specifically, pure electron-positoron pair jet models are unfavorable based on the lack of an infrared bump associated with ``bulk Comptonization'' of CMB photons by an ultrarelativistic jet.

arXiv comment4 pages, 3 figures; accepted for publication in ApJ Letters

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Cited by in corpus (16)

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• Testing the beamed inverse-Compton model for jet X-ray emission: velocity structure and deceleration?
• Ruling out IC/CMB X-rays in PKS 0637-752 and the Implications for TeV Emission from Large-Scale Quasar Jets
• A Multi-Wavelength Study of the High Surface Brightness Hotspot in PKS1421-490
• On the dynamical evolution of hot spots in powerful radio loud AGNs
• HST observations of the quasar PKS 0637-752: equipartition electron-proton jet from the most complete spectral coverage to date
• Deceleration from Entrainment in the jet of the quasar 1136-135?
• Constraining the shear acceleration model for the X-ray emission of large-scale extragalactic jets
• 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
• An Infrared Study of the Large-scale Jet in Quasar PKS 1136-135
• A Photo-Hadronic Model of the Large Scale Jet of PKS 0637-752
• Constraints on the Low-Energy Cutoff in the Electron Distribution of the PKS 0637-752 Jet
• 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