2017/03/03 by Anabella Araudo, Araudo, Anabella T., A. R. Bell +3
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #FOS: Physical sciences #High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena (astro-ph.HE) #Particle Accelerators and Free-Electron Lasers #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1703.01193
openalex publication_date 2017/03/03 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study the hotspots of powerful radiogalaxies, where electrons accelerated\nat the jet termination shock emit synchrotron radiation. The turnover of the\nsynchrotron spectrum is typically observed between infrared and optical\nfrequencies, indicating that the maximum energy of non-thermal electrons\naccelerated at the shock is ~TeV for a canonical magnetic field of ~100 micro\nGauss. We show that this maximum energy cannot be constrained by synchrotron\nlosses as usually assumed, unless the jet density is unreasonably large and\nmost of the jet upstream energy goes to non-thermal particles. We test this\nresult by considering a sample of hotspots observed at radio, infrared and\noptical wavelengths.\n