Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-xbtfd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T16:35:52.847Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Jets in AGN at extremely high redshifts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 March 2015

Leonid I. Gurvits
Affiliation:
Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe, P.O. Box 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo, The Netherlands email: lgurvits@jive.nl, zparagi@jive.nl Dept. of Astrodynamics & Space Missions, Delft University of Technology, 2629 HS Delft, Delft, The Netherlands
Sándor Frey
Affiliation:
FÖMI Satellite Geodetic Observatory, P.O. Box 585, H-1592 Budapest, Hungary email: frey@sgo.fomi.hu
Zsolt Paragi
Affiliation:
Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe, P.O. Box 2, 7990 AA Dwingeloo, The Netherlands email: lgurvits@jive.nl, zparagi@jive.nl
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The jet phenomenon is a trademark of active galactic nuclei (AGN). In most general terms, the current understanding of this phenomenon explains the jet appearance by effects of relativistic plasma physics. The fundamental source of energy that feeds the plasma flow is believed to be the gravitational field of a central supermassive black hole. While the mechanism of energy transfer and a multitude of effects controlling the plasma flow are yet to be understood, major properties of jets are strikingly similar in a broad range of scales from stellar to galactic. They are supposed to be controlled by a limited number of physical parameters, such as the mass of a central black hole and its spin, magnetic field induction and accretion rate. In a very simplified sense, these parameters define the formation of a typical core–jet structure observed at radio wavelengths in the region of the innermost central tens of parsecs in AGN. These core–jet structures are studied in the radio domain by Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) with milli- and sub-milliarcsecond angular resolution. Such structures are detectable at a broad range of redshifts. If observed at a fixed wavelength, a typical core–jet AGN morphology would appear as having a steep-spectrum jet fading away with the increasing redshift while a flat-spectrum core becoming more dominant. If core–jet AGN constitute the same population of objects throughout the redshift space, the apparent “prominence” of jets at higher redshifts must decrease (Gurvits 1999): well pronounced jets at high z must appear less frequent than at low z.

Type
Contributed Papers
Copyright
Copyright © International Astronomical Union 2015 

References

Frey, S., Paragi, Z., Mosoni, L., & Gurvits, L. I. 2005, A&A, 436, L13Google Scholar
Frey, S., Gurvits, L. I., Paragi, Z., & Gabányi, K. E. 2008, A&A, 484, L39Google Scholar
Frey, S., Paragi, Z., Gurvits, L. I., Gabányi, K. E., & Cseh, D. 2011, A&A, 531, L5Google Scholar
Frey, S., Fogasy, J. O., Paragi, Z., & Gurvits, L. I. 2013, MNRAS, 431, 1314Google Scholar
Frey, S., Paragi, Z., Fogasy, J. O., & Gurvits, L. I. 2015, MNRAS, 446, 2921CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gurvits, L. I. 1999, in: Perspectives on Radio Astronomy: Science with Large Antenna Arrays (ASTRON: Dwingeloo), van Haarlem, M. P. (ed.), p. 183Google Scholar
Helmboldt, J. F., Taylor, G. B., Tremblay, S., et al. 2007, ApJ, 658, 203Google Scholar
O'Dea, C. P. 1998, PASP, 110, 493Google Scholar
Savage, A. & Peterson, B. A. 1983, in: Early Evolution of the Universe and its Present Structure, IAUS 104 (Springer: The Netherlands), Abell, G. O. & Chincarini, G. (eds.), p. 57Google Scholar