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The Effect of Nonaxisymmetric Radiative Drag on Relativistic Jets in Active Galactic Nuclei

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 March 2013

Qinghuan Luo*
Affiliation:
Research Centre for Theoretical Astrophysics, School of Physics, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
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Abstract

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The effect of nonaxisymmetric radiation drag on relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei (AGN) is discussed. The radiation force due to inverse Compton scattering of photon fields from a noncircular accretion disk is calculated. It is shown that such nonaxisymmetric drag can cause jet path distortion within the subparsec region of the black hole. This subparsec scale distortion is potentially observable with the current VLBI, VLBA techniques. Any modulation of the axially asymmetric distribution of disk emission can result in variability in electromagnetic radiation from the jet.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of Australia 2001

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