2004/02/29 by A. Atoyan, Armen Atoyan, C. D. Dermer +1 · 6 citations
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena #Dark Matter and Cosmic Phenomena #Relativity and Gravitational Theory #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.1086/422499
published as Astrophys.J. 613 (2004) 151-158 · 12 pages, 2 figures; accepted in ApJ
arxiv created 2004/05/18 · openalex publication_date 2004/09/20 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
A widely discussed explanation for the origin of the X-ray emission observed from knots in extended quasar jets with the Chandra X-Ray Observatory is Compton-scattered cosmic microwave background radiation by electrons with Lorentz factors γ' ~ 10 2 . This model faces difficulties in terms of total energy requirements and in explaining the spatial profiles of the radio, optical, and X-ray knots in sources such as PKS 0637-752, 3C 273, or PKS 1127-145. These difficulties can be resolved in the framework of one- and two-component synchrotron models. We propose a model in which the broadband radio-to-X-ray synchrotron emission in quasar jets is powered by collimated beams of ultrahigh energy neutrons and γ-rays formed in the subparsec-scale jets. The decay of the neutral beam in the intergalactic medium drives relativistic shocks to accelerate nonthermal electrons of the ambient medium. A second synchrotron component arises from the injection of leptons with Lorentz factors ≫10 7 that appear in the extended jet in the process of decay of ultrahigh energy γ-rays. This approach could account for qualitative differences in the extended X-ray jets of Fanaroff-Riley (FR) 1 and 2 galaxies. Detection of high-energy neutrinos from blazars and core-dominated quasars will provide strong evidence for this model.