Constraints on jets and accretion disks in low luminosity radio galaxies
Abstract
Multiwavelength data has greatly advanced our understanding of AGN and their environments. I study a sample of 21 nearby low luminosity radio galaxies, selected on the basis of distance, radio luminosity, size and Hubble type from the Uppsala Galactic Catalog. I present 1 new and 12 archival Chandra datasets. X-ray imaging of all sources shows nuclear X-ray emission from the AGN. 11 out of these 13 sources also show diffuse emission associated with the host galaxy. I discovered three new X-ray jets. In conjunction with the six known X-ray jets, nine out of the thirteen galaxies exhibit X-ray jet emission. Thus X-ray jets are fairly ubiquitous in low luminosity radio galaxies. The nuclear X-ray spectra are best described by a combination of hot gas and powerlaw models. The nuclear flux and luminosity densities seem well-correlated with their optical and radio counterparts. The correlation is stronger if the contribution from the powerlaw component to the X-ray emission is isolated. Thus the powerlaw component may be the true description of emission from the central region (either from the accretion disk or parsec-scale jet). I investigate the nature of core emission by fitting synchrotron models as well as by comparing disk models with broad-band spectral energy distributions of the AGN. In general, the core emission seems consistent with a synchrotron-jet model. I present VLBA imaging and polarization data for 10 sources in our sample. All 10 sources show corejet morphology, consistent with relativistic jet velocities on parsec scales. The jets are expected to decelerate on scales similar to the extent of the X-ray jets. Assuming synchrotron emission, it is possible that some fraction of the bulk kinetic energy of the jets is being channeled for reacceleration of electrons within the jet, necessary to produce the observed X-ray emission. In the VLBA data, 5 out of 10 sources show polarization. The polarization observations are broadly consistent with unification schemes for FR-I and BL-Lac objects.
- Publication:
-
Ph.D. Thesis
- Pub Date:
- 2007
- Bibcode:
- 2007PhDT.........1T
- Keywords:
-
- Jets;
- Accretion disks;
- Luminosity;
- Radio galaxies;
- Galaxies;
- Astronomy, Astrophysics