On the Asymmetries in Powerful Extragalactic Radio Sources

We have investigated the correlations between the asymmetries in depolarization and spectral index in a bright source sample. We find a significant correlation between these asymmetries which can be understood in terms of the relativistic beaming hypothesis in which the counter jet side is steeper and more polarized than the jet side due to the presence of a halo of hot gas surrounding the source and contribution from the beamed jet and hot spot emission to the observed lobe emission. This simple interpretation is however complicated by the presence of a stronger correlation between these parameters and extended luminosity which is expected to be aspect-invariant; suggesting that the observed spectral index – depolarization correlation is an artefact of their being separately correlated with radio luminosity. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.