A New Approach for Estimating Kinetic Luminosity of Jet in AGNs

The Konigl inhomogeneous jet model can successfully reproduce most observa-tional features of jets in active galactic nuclei (AGN), when suitable physical parameters are adopted. We improve Konigl's calculations on the core emission from the jet with a small viewing angle θ0～ψ (ψ is half opening angle of the conical jet). The proper motion of the jet component provides a constraint on the jet kinematics. Based on the inhomogeneous jet model, we use the proper motion data of the jet component to calculate the minimal kinetic luminosity of the jet required to reproduce the core emission measured by the very-long-baseline intefferometry (VLBI) for a sample of BL Lac objects. Our results show that the minimal kinetic luminosity is slightly higher than the bolometric luminosity for most sources in the sample, which implies that radiatively inefficient accretion flows (RIAFs) may be in those BL Lac objects, or/and the properties of their broad-line regions (BLRs) are signifi-cantly different from flat-spectrum radio-loud quasars.     

Study on the Properties of Blazar Jets

The multi-wavelength quasi-simultaneous data of 55 Fermi blazars are fitted by using the conical jet model, and the physical properties of blazar jets are also investigated. Through the X²-minimization fitting procedure, the best-fit parameters of the conical jet model are obtained. Combined with the other parameters we collected, a statistical analysis is performed. The results of statistical analysis are summarized as follows: (1) The jet power obtained by the spectral energy distribution (SED) fitting is larger than the jet power calculated by using the extended radio luminosity; (2) There is no correlation between the Doppler factor 5 and the magnetic field strength B; (3) There is a correlation between the jet power and the accretion disk luminosity, and the Blandford-Znajek (BZ) mechanism can well explain the energy source of BL Lac jets rather than Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars (FSRQs); (4) The jet power is significantly correlated with the black hole mass.     

The BL Lac heart of Centaurus A

We have observed emission from the nucleus of the closest radio galaxy, Centaurus A, from the radio to the gamma-ray band. We construct, for the first time, its overall spectral energy distribution (SED) which appears to be intriguingly similar to those of blazars, showing two broad peaks located in the far-infrared band and at ∼0.1 MeV respectively. The whole nuclear emission of Centaurus A is successfully reproduced with a synchrotron self-Compton model. The estimated physical parameters of the emitting source are similar to those of BL Lacs, except for a much smaller beaming factor, as qualitatively expected when a relativistic jet is orientated at a large angle to the line of sight. These results represent strong evidence that Centaurus A is indeed a misoriented BL Lac, and provide strong support in favour of the unification scheme for low-luminosity radio-loud active galactic nuclei. Modelling of the SED of Centaurus A also provides further and independent indications of the presence of velocity structures in sub-parsec-scale jets.     

The flat synchrotron spectra of partially self-absorbed jets revisited

Flat radio spectra with large brightness temperatures at the core of active galactic nuclei and X-ray binaries are usually interpreted as the partially self-absorbed bases of jet flows emitting synchrotron radiation. Here we extend previous models of jets propagating at large angles to our line of sight to self-consistently include the effects of energy losses of the relativistic electrons due to the synchrotron process itself and the adiabatic expansion of the jet flow. We also take into account energy gains through self-absorption. Two model classes are presented. The ballistic jet flows, with the jet material travelling along straight trajectories, and adiabatic jets. Despite the energy losses, both scenarios can result in flat emission spectra; however, the adiabatic jets require a specific geometry. No re-acceleration process along the jet is needed for the electrons. We apply the models to observational data of the X-ray binary Cygnus X-1. Both models can be made consistent with the observations. The resulting ballistic jet is extremely narrow with a jet opening angle of only 5 arcsec. Its energy transport rate is small compared to the time-averaged jet power and therefore suggests the presence of non-radiating protons in the jet flow. The adiabatic jets require a strong departure from energy equipartition between the magnetic field and the relativistic electrons. These models also imply a jet power of two orders of magnitude higher than the Eddington limiting luminosity of a  10-M_⊙  black hole. The models put strong constraints on the physical conditions in the jet flows on scales well below achievable resolution limits.     

激变射电源中偏振角快速旋转的解释

在许多激变射电源(Blazar天体)中,观测到一种非常特别的现象,即偏振角的快速旋转.在相对论喷流的框架下,这种偏振角的旋转可以用双成分模型来解释.在这个模型中,一个成分是作为背景喷流本身的辐射,是恒定不变的成分;另一个成分被认为是沿喷流传播的相对论性激波,它产生变化的流量和偏振.这两个成分的偏系辐射的叠加可以产生观测到的偏振角旋转。本文讨论了三个激变射电源(BL Lac,AO0235+164,0727-115)中发生的偏振角旋转.结果表明,用相对论喷流-激波双成分模型可以很好地拟合观测到的偏振角旋转、偏振度和流量变化。说明射电激变源中出现的快速偏振和流量变化可能是由于相对论激波沿喷流传播时,激波辐射区中磁场取向和有序性以及强度和电子密度的变化所引起的。     

The radio jets in B2 0755+379

We present and discuss observations of the radio galaxy 0755+379 made with the VLA at 1.4 and 5.0 GHz and with MERLIN at 1.7 GHz. These data allow us to image the radio jets over two orders of magnitude in linear size and to investigate the hypothesis that jets in low-luminosity radio galaxies start with velocities close to c and then slow down to subrelativistic speeds. We apply a model for an adiabatically expanding relativistic jet to the observed surface brightness and derive velocity profiles along the jet for various assumed starting conditions. We show that these profiles are consistent with the observed jet/counter-jet brightness ratios provided that the angle to the line of sight θ ≃27°. The inferred velocity at a distance of 0.5 kpc from the nucleus is ≃0.9 c . Finally, we show that the predicted velocity at 10 kpc from the nucleus is consistent with that obtained independently from energy-balance arguments.     

耀变体亮温度与黑洞喷流能量的相关性讨论

耀变体(Blazars)的亮温度与黑洞喷流能量和吸积率有重要关系.搜集了53个耀变体源样本,包括22个蝎虎天体(BL Lacs)和31个平谱射电类星体(Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars,FSRQs),研究了耀变体亮温度与黑洞喷流能量的分布,并对子类中亮温度与黑洞喷流能量的相关性进行了讨论.研究结果...     

Characteristics of the Radiation from Blazars

We have collected short-timescale variability data of 47 blazars, estimated the masses of their central black holes and the sizes of their radiation regions at different wavebands, and made a statistical analysis on the calculated results. It is found that the central black hole mass of blazars falls in the range 10⁷M to 10¹⁰M, and that the BL Lac objects and the flat-spectrum radio quasars have very different central black hole masses (the latter being generally greater), while they have very similar sizes of radiation regions in the infrared and γ-ray wavebands. Also, using the collected bolometric luminosity data, we have analyzed the relationship between the bolometric luminosity of blazars and their short-timescale variability, and it is concluded that the radiations from the radio-selected BL Lac objects (RBLs) and flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) are strongly beam-confined, while the effect of relativistic beaming is relatively small for the X-ray-selected BL Lac objects (XBLs).     

An optical view of BL Lacertae objects

BL Lac objects are active nuclei, hosted in massive elliptical galaxies, the emission of which is dominated by a relativistic jet closely aligned with the line of sight. This implies the existence of a parent population of sources with a misaligned jet that have been identified with low-power radiogalaxies. The spectrum of BL Lacs, dominated by non-thermal emission over the whole electromagnetic range, together with bright compact radio cores, high luminosities, rapid and large amplitude flux variability at all frequencies and strong polarization makes these sources an optimal laboratory for high energy astrophysics. A most distinctive characteristic of the class is the weakness or absence of spectral lines, that historically hindered the identification of their nature and ever thereafter proved to be a hurdle in the determination of their distance. In this paper, we review the main observational facts that contribute to the present basic interpretation of this class of active galaxies. We overview the history of the BL Lac objects research field and their population as it emerged from multi-wavelength surveys. The properties of the flux variability and polarization, compared with those at radio, X-ray and gamma-ray frequencies, are summarized together with the present knowledge of the host galaxies, their environments, and central black hole masses. We focus this review on the optical observations, which played a crucial role in the early phase of BL Lacs studies, and in spite of extensive radio, X-ray, and recently gamma-ray observations, could represent the future major contribution to the unveiling of the origin of these sources. In particular, they could provide a firm conclusion on the long debated issue of the cosmic evolution of this class of active galactic nuclei and on the connection between formation of supermassive black holes and relativistic jets.     

A Millimetre/Submillimetre Polarization Survey of Compact Flat-Spectrum Radio Sources

We present the results of the first survey and monitoring study of the linear polarization properties of compact, flat-spectrum radio sources at mm/submm wavelengths and discuss the implications of the inferred magnetic field structure for the emission models involving shock waves in relativistic jets on subparsec scales. We find significant polarization in most sources but, in general, the magnetic field on subparsec scales is less well ordered than on parsec scales. We observe no difference in polarization properties between the BL Lac objects and compact flat-spectrum quasars at these wavelengths. Although we find the behaviour of some sources, particularly the most highly polarized, to be very consistent with the predictions of transverse shock-in-jet models, the detailed behaviour of most objects is not. Conical shock structures can more readily explain the observed diverse behaviour of the sample, although some degree of bending of the jet may still be necessary in some cases.     

Radio, optical and X-ray nuclei in nearby 3CRR radio galaxies

HST observations have shown that low-redshift 3CR radio galaxies often exhibit a point-like optical component positionally coincident with the GHz-frequency radio core. In this paper we discuss the correlation between the luminosities of the radio, optical and X-ray cores in these objects, and argue that all three components have a common origin at the base of the relativistic jets. In unified models, FR I radio galaxies should appear as dimmed, redshifted versions of BL Lac objects. We show that such models are consistent with the spectral energy distributions of the radio galaxies only if the nuclear X-ray emission in radio galaxies is inverse Compton in origin.     

The bulk kinetic power of radio jets in active galactic nuclei

Based on the Königl's inhomogeneous jet model, we estimate the jet parameters, such as bulk Lorentz factor Γ, viewing angle θ and electron number density n _e from radio very long-baseline interferometry and X-ray data for a sample of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) assuming that the X-rays are from the jet rather than the intracluster gas. The bulk kinetic power of jets is then calculated using the derived jet parameters. We find a strong correlation between the total luminosity of broad emission lines and the bulk kinetic power of the jets. This result supports the scenario that the accretion process is tightly linked with the radio jets, though how the disc and jet are coupled is not revealed by present correlation analysis. Moreover, we find a significant correlation between the bulk kinetic power and radio extended luminosity. This implies that the emission from the radio lobes is closely related with the energy flux transported through jets from the central part of AGNs.     

Correlation between radio and broad-line emission in radio-loud quasars

We present a correlation between radio and broad-line emission for a sample of radio-loud quasars that supports a close link between accretion processes and relativistic jets. BL Lac objects seem to follow the statistical behaviour of quasars, but with fainter broad-line emission.     

Intermediate BL Lac objects

The 200-mJy sample, defined by Marchã et al., contains about 60 nearby, northern, flat-spectrum radio sources. In particular, the sample has proved effective at finding nearby radio-selected BL Lac objects with radio luminosities comparable to those of X-ray-selected objects, and low-luminosity flat-spectrum weak emission-line radio galaxies (WLRGs). The 200-mJy sample contains 23 BL Lac objects (including 6 BL Lac candidates) and 19 WLRGs. We will refer to these subsamples as the 200-mJy BL Lac sample and the 200-mJy WLRG sample, respectively. We have started a systematic analysis of the morphological pc-scale properties of the 200-mJy radio sources using VLBI observations.
This paper presents VLBI observations at 5 and 1.6 GHz of 14 BL Lac objects and WLRGs selected from the 200-mJy sample. The pc-scale morphology of these objects is briefly discussed. We derive the radio beaming parameters of the 200-mJy BL Lac objects and WLRGs and compare them with those of other BL Lac samples and with a sample of FR I radio galaxies. The overall broad-band radio, optical and X-ray properties of the 200-mJy BL Lac sample are discussed and compared with those of other BL Lac samples, radio- and X-ray-selected. We find that the 200-mJy BL Lac objects fill the gap between HBL and LBL objects in the colour–colour plot, and have intermediate α _XOX as expected in the spectral energy distribution unification scenario. Finally, we briefly discuss the role of the WLRGs.     

Analysis of λ = 6 cm VLBI polarization observations of a complete sample of northern BL Lacertae objects

The results of very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) total intensity ( I ) and linear polarization ( P ) observations at     are presented for 10 radio bright BL Lacertae objects. These images complete first-epoch polarization observations for the 1-Jy sample of northern BL Lacertae objects defined by Kühr & Schmidt. Estimates of superluminal speeds are presented for several sources, bringing the total number of sources in the sample for which such estimates are available to 16. Second-epoch observations currently being reduced should yield speed estimates for VLBI features in essentially all the sources in the sample. The jet magnetic fields of these BL Lacertae objects are usually transverse to the local jet direction, but a sizeable minority (about 30 per cent) have VLBI jet components with longitudinal magnetic fields. This may suggest that the conditions in the VLBI jets of BL Lacertae objects are favourable for the formation of relativistic shocks; alternatively, it may be that the toroidal component of the intrinsic jet magnetic field is characteristically dominant in these sources.     

Astrophysical Jets of Blazars and Microquasars

Some recent developments in the study of relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei and microquasars are reviewed. While it has been well established for some time that extragalactic jets found in radio galaxies, quasars, and BL Lac objects are the site of ultrarelativistic particle acceleration, the recent identification of the Galactic jet source and microquasar LS~5039 as a source of very-high-energy gamma-ray emission has underlined the striking similarity between the two types of astrophysical jet sources. In this paper, I will present an overview of the dominant radiation and particle acceleration processes and observational tests to distinguish between such processes. The wide-ranging analogies between Galactic and extragalactic jets, but also their distinct differences, in particular those caused by the presence of the companion star in Galactic microquasar systems, will be exposed.     

Evidence for cospatial optical and radio polarized emission in active galactic nuclei

We investigate the relationship between the optical and radio emission of active galactic nuclei (AGN) by analysing optical and 15+22+43 GHz Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) polarization observations simultaneous to within a day for 11 BL Lacertae (BL Lac) objects and the blazar 3C279. We have determined and corrected for the Faraday rotation measures in the very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) cores, enabling us to compare the intrinsic (zero-wavelength) VLBI-core polarization angles and the optical polarization angles χ_opt. A clear alignment between these two angles emerges in the transition toward higher radio frequencies, and a prominent peak at 0° is visible in the distribution of |χ_opt−χ_43 GHz|. This correlation implies that the magnetic-field orientations in the regions giving rise to the optical and radio polarization are the same, and can be easily understood if the radio and optical polarization are roughly cospatial. It is difficult to rule out the possibility that they arise in different regions in a straight jet with a uniform magnetic-field structure, but this seems less likely, since the VLBI jets of AGN are often bent on parsec-scales. This may suggest that much or all of the strong optical polarization in these sources arises in the inner radio jets, possibly associated with the formation and emergence of compact new VLBI components.     

Properties of BL Lac Objects with Redshift≤0.2

1 INTRODUCTIONBlazars, including BL Lacertae objects and Optical Violently Variable (OVV) quasars,belong to a class of active ga1actic nuclei (AGNs), the spectrum of which is dominated bynontherma1 radiation from re1ativistic electrons in jets pointing at us (e.g. BlandfOrd & Rees1978; Urry & Padovani 1995). The entire electromagnetic spectraI energy distributions (SEDs)usually reveal two broad components, the low energy part, peaking in the IR to soft X-rayrange, and the high en…     

Properties of BL Lac Objects with Redshift < 0.2

We present a large sample which includes 82 BL Lac objects with redshifts below 0.2 from recent literature. We find strong correlations in both flux and luminosity between the radio (5 GHz) and optical bands (5500 A). The correlations in other bands are very weak. Five TeV BL Lacs and two suspect sources are found to have similar properties as high-frequency-peaked BL Lacs (HBLs). Our results suggest that both the radio and optical emissions are from the same radiation mech anism in the SSC model. The TeV BL Lac candidates should be HBLs or HBL-like objects with small redshifts.     

iShocks: X-ray binary jets with an internal shocks model

In the following paper, we present an internal shocks model, iShocks, for simulating a variety of relativistic jet scenarios; these scenarios can range from a single ejection event to an almost continuous jet, and are highly user configurable. Although the primary focus in the following paper is black hole X-ray binary jets, the model is scale and source independent and could be used for supermassive black holes in active galactic nuclei or other flows such as jets from neutron stars. Discrete packets of plasma (or 'shells') are used to simulate the jet volume. A two-shell collision gives rise to an internal shock, which acts as an electron re-energization mechanism. Using a pseudo-random distribution of the shell properties, the results show how for the first time it is possible to reproduce a flat/inverted spectrum (associated with compact radio jets) in a conical jet whilst taking the adiabatic energy losses into account. Previous models have shown that electron re-acceleration is essential in order to obtain a flat spectrum from an adiabatic conical jet: multiple internal shocks prove to be efficient in providing this re-energization. We also show how the high-frequency turnover/break in the spectrum is correlated with the jet power,  ν _b ∝ L ^∼0.6_W  , and the flat-spectrum synchrotron flux is correlated with the total jet power,   F _ν∝ L ^∼1.4_W  . Both the correlations are in agreement with previous analytical predictions.