1999/04/30 by S. Jeyakumar, D. J. Saikia · 3 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena #Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1046/j.1365-8711.2000.03063.x
MNRAS in press, 9 pages and 3 figures, MNRAS LaTex
arxiv created 1999/10/05 · openalex publication_date 2000/01/15 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We study the collimation of radio jets in the high-luminosity Fanaroff—Riley class II sources by examining the dependence of the sizes of hotspots and knots in the radio jets on the overall size of the objects for a sample of compact steep-spectrum (CSS) and larger-sized objects. The objects span a wide range in overall size from about 50 pc to nearly 1 Mpc. The mean size of the hotspots increases with the source size during the CSS phase, which is typically taken to be about 20 kpc, and the relationship flattens for the larger sources. The sizes of the knots in the compact as well as the larger sources are consistent with this trend. We discuss possible implications of these trends. We find that the hotspot closer to the nucleus or core component tends to be more compact for the most asymmetric objects where the ratio of separations of the hotspots from the nucleus rd > 2. These highly asymmetric sources are invariably CSS objects, and their location in the hotspot size ratio—separation ratio diagram is possibly the result of their evolution in an asymmetric environment. We also suggest that some sources, especially of lower luminosity, exhibit an asymmetry in the collimation of the oppositely directed radio jets.