Document Type
Article
Publication Title
The Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
Abstract
We present results from continued Chandra X-ray imaging and spectroscopy of a flux-limited sample of flat spectrum radio-emitting quasars with jet-like extended structure. X-rays are detected from 24 of the 39 jets observed so far. We compute the distribution of αrx, the spectral index between the X-ray and radio bands, showing that it is broad, extending at least from 0.8 to 1.2. While there is a general trend that the radio brightest jets are detected most often, it is clear that predicting the X-ray flux from the radio knot flux densities is risky, so a shallow X-ray survey is the most effective means for finding jets that are X-ray bright. We test the model in which the X-rays result from inverse Compton (IC) scattering of cosmic microwave background (CMB) photons by relativistic electrons in the jet moving with a high bulk Lorentz factor nearly along the line of sight. Depending on how the jet magnetic fields vary with z, the observed X-ray to radio flux ratios do not follow the redshift dependence expected from the IC-CMB model. For a subset of our sample with known superluminal motion based on VLBI observations, we estimate the angle of the kiloparsec-scale jet to the line of sight by considering the additional information in the bends observed between parsec- and kiloparsec-scale jets. These angles are sometimes much smaller than estimates based on the IC-CMB model with a Lorentz factor of 15, indicating that these jets may decelerate significantly from parsec scales to kiloparsec scales.
DOI
10.1088/0067-0049/193/1/15
Publication Date
3-2011
Recommended Citation
Marshall, Herman L.; Gelbord, Jonathan M.; Schwartz, Daniel A.; Murphey, David W.; Lovell, James E.J.; Worrall, Diana M.; Birkinshaw, Mark; Perlman, Eric S.; Godfrey, Leith E.H.; and Jauncey, David L., "An X-Ray Imaging Survey Of Quasar Jets: Testing The Inverse Compton Model" (2011). Aerospace, Physics, and Space Science Faculty Publications. 373.
https://repository.fit.edu/apss_faculty/373
