The Problems of Ageing

Abstract

I present a brief overview of observational, modeling and theoretical issues related to ageing calculations based on spectral steepening. These include problems such as inhomogeneous magnetic fields, diffusion of relativistic particles, confusion from multiple particle populations and particle acceleration. Although some of the effects are only of order unity, others call into question the entire ageing paradigm. I refer to and show some data illustrating these problems and make a few recommendations about how we should proceed given these uncertainties.

8 pages, 2 figures, proceedings from 1999 'Life Cycles of Radio Galaxies' workshop at STScI in Baltimore, MD

References in corpus (5)

• Evolutionary tracks of FRII sources through the P-D diagram
• Analysis of the Synchrotron Emission from the M87 Jet
• Coaxial Jets and Sheaths in Wide-Angle-Tail Radio Galaxies
• Simulations of Nonthermal Electron Transport in Multidimensional Flows: Synthetic Observations of Radio Galaxies
• Electron Population Aging Models for Wide-Angle Tails

Cited by in corpus (11)

• Radiative Efficiency and Content of Extragalactic Radio Sources: Toward a Universal Scaling Relation Between Jet Power and Radio Power
• Proper Motions in Compact Symmetric Objects
• MOJAVE: Monitoring of Jets in Active Galactic Nuclei with VLBA Experiments. XI. Spectral distributions
• Radio spectral properties and jet duty cycle in the restarted radio galaxy 3C388
• The Kinematic and Spectral Ages of the Compact Radio Source CTD 93
• The properties of powerful radio sources at 90 GHz
• The Planck-ATCA Co-eval Observations (PACO) project: analysis of radio source properties between 5 and 217 GHz
• Observations of M87 and Hydra A at 90 GHz
• The structure of the giant radio fossil in the Ophiuchus galaxy cluster
• Orbital motion of NGC 6166 (3C 338) and its impact on the jet morphology at kiloparsec scales
• The splash beneath the largest radio bubble in a cluster core