3,390 research outputs found
Blazar sequence - an artefact of Doppler boosting
The blazar sequence is a scenario in which the bolometric luminosity of the
blazar governs the appearance of its spectral energy distribution. The most
prominent result is the significant negative correlation between the
synchrotron peak frequencies and the synchrotron peak luminosities of the
blazar population. Observational studies of the blazar sequence have, in
general, neglected the effect of Doppler boosting. We study the dependence of
both the synchrotron peak frequency and luminosity with Doppler-corrected
quantities. We determine the spectral energy distributions of 135 radio-bright
AGN and find the best-fit parabolic function for the distribution to quantify
their synchrotron emission. The corresponding measurements of synchrotron peak
luminosities and frequencies are Doppler-corrected with a new set of Doppler
factors calculated from variability data. The relevant correlations for the
blazar sequence are determined for these intrinsic quantities. The Doppler
factor depends strongly on the synchrotron peak frequency, the lower energy
sources being more boosted. Applying the Doppler correction to the peak
frequencies and luminosities annuls the negative correlation between the two
quantities, which becomes positive. For BL Lacertae objects, the positive
correlation is particularly strong. The blazar sequence, when defined as the
anticorrelation between the peak frequency and luminosity of the synchrotron
component of the spectral energy distribution, disappears when the intrinsic,
Doppler-corrected values are used. It is an observational phenomenon created by
variable Doppler boosting across the synchrotron peak frequency range.Comment: 9 pages, 5 figures + 2 tables. The published version with minor
changes, the main conclusions are unchange
Protostars: Forges of cosmic rays?
Galactic cosmic rays (CR) are particles presumably accelerated in supernova
remnant shocks that propagate in the interstellar medium up to the densest
parts of molecular clouds, losing energy and their ionisation efficiency
because of the presence of magnetic fields and collisions with molecular
hydrogen. Recent observations hint at high levels of ionisation and at the
presence of synchrotron emission in protostellar systems, which leads to an
apparent contradiction. We want to explain the origin of these CRs accelerated
within young protostars as suggested by observations. Our modelling consists of
a set of conditions that has to be satisfied in order to have an efficient CR
acceleration through diffusive shock acceleration. We analyse three main
acceleration sites, then we follow the propagation of these particles through
the protostellar system up to the hot spot region. We find that jet shocks can
be strong accelerators of CR protons, which can be boosted up to relativistic
energies. Other promising acceleration sites are protostellar surfaces, where
shocks caused by impacting material during the collapse phase are strong enough
to accelerate CR protons. In contrast, accretion flow shocks are too weak to
efficiently accelerate CRs. Though CR electrons are weakly accelerated, they
can gain a strong boost to relativistic energies through re-acceleration in
successive shocks. We suggest a mechanism able to accelerate both CR protons
and electrons through the diffusive shock acceleration mechanism, which can be
used to explain the high ionisation rate and the synchrotron emission observed
towards protostellar sources. The existence of an internal source of energetic
particles can have a strong and unforeseen impact on the ionisation of the
protostellar disc, on the star and planet formation processes, and on the
formation of pre-biotic molecules.Comment: 22 pages, 15 figures, accepted by Astronomy and Astrophysic
High-energy Astrophysics and the Virtual Observatory
The Virtual Observatory (VO) will revolutionise the way we do Astronomy by
allowing easy access to all astronomical data and by making the handling and
analysis of datasets at various locations across the globe much simpler and
faster. I report here on the need for the VO and its status in Europe,
concentrating on the recently started EURO-VO project, and then give two
specific applications of VO tools to high-energy astrophysics.Comment: 12 pages, 3 figures, invited talk at the Workshop ``Multifrequency
Behaviour of High Energy Cosmic Sources'', Vulcano, Italy, May 2005, F.
Giovannelli et al., in pres
Protonated CO2 in massive star-forming clumps
Interstellar CO2 is an important reservoir of carbon and oxygen, and one of
the major constituents of the icy mantles of dust grains, but it is not
observable directly in the cold gas because has no permanent dipole moment. Its
protonated form, HOCO+, is believed to be a good proxy for gaseous CO2.
However, it has been detected in only a few star-forming regions so far, so
that its interstellar chemistry is not well understood. We present new
detections of HOCO+ lines in 11 high-mass star-forming clumps. Our observations
increase by more than three times the number of detections in star-forming
regions so far. We have derived beam-averaged abundances relative to H2 in
between 0.3 and 3.8 x 10^{-11}. We have compared these values with the
abundances of H13CO+, a possible gas-phase precursor of HOCO+, and CH3OH, a
product of surface chemistry. We have found a positive correlation with H13CO+,
while with CH3OH there is no correlation. We suggest that the gas-phase
formation route starting from HCO+ plays an important role in the formation of
HOCO+, perhaps more relevant than protonation of CO2 (upon evaporation of this
latter from icy dust mantles).Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in MNRA
What Types of Jets does Nature Make: A New Population of Radio Quasars
We use statistical results from a large sample of about 500 blazars, based on
two surveys, the Deep X-ray Radio Blazar Survey (DXRBS), nearly complete, and
the RASS-Green Bank survey (RGB), to provide new constraints on the spectral
energy distribution of blazars, particularly flat-spectrum radio quasars
(FSRQ). This reassessment is prompted by the discovery of a population of FSRQ
with spectral energy distribution similar to that of high-energy peaked BL
Lacs. The fraction of these sources is sample dependent, being ~ 10% in DXRBS
and ~ 30% in RGB (and reaching ~ 80% for the Einstein Medium Sensitivity
Survey). We show that these ``X-ray strong'' radio quasars, which had gone
undetected or unnoticed in previous surveys, indeed are the strong-lined
counterparts of high-energy peaked BL Lacs and have synchrotron peak
frequencies, nu_peak, much higher than ``classical'' FSRQ, typically in the UV
band for DXRBS. Some of these objects may be 100 GeV - TeV emitters, as are
several known BL Lacs with similar broadband spectra. Our large, deep, and
homogeneous DXRBS sample does not show anti-correlations between nu_peak and
radio, broad line region, or jet power, as expected in the so-called ``blazar
sequence'' scenario. However, the fact that FSRQ do not reach X-ray-to-radio
flux ratios and nu_peak values as extreme as BL Lacs and the elusiveness of
high nu_peak - high-power blazars suggest that there might be an intrinsic,
physical limit to the synchrotron peak frequency that can be reached by
strong-lined, powerful blazars. Our findings have important implications for
the study of jet formation and physics and its relationship to other properties
of active galactic nuclei.Comment: 15 pages, 12 figures. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical
Journal (May 1 2003 issue). Postscript file also available at
http://www.stsci.edu/~padovani/unif_papers.htm
VLA Observations of a New Population of Blazars
We present the first deep VLA radio images of flat-spectrum radio quasars
(FSRQ) with multiwavelength emission properties similar to those of BL Lacs
with synchrotron X-rays. Our observations of twenty-five of these sources show
that their radio morphologies are similar to those of other radio quasars.
However, their range of extended powers is more similar to that of BL Lacertae
objects (BL Lacs) and extends down to the low values typical of FR I radio
galaxies. Five out of our nine lobe-dominated sources have extended radio
powers in the range typical of both FR I and FR II radio galaxies, but their
extended radio structure is clearly FR II-like. Therefore, we have not yet
found a large population of radio quasars hosted by FR Is. Two thirds of our
sources have a core-dominated radio morpholgy and thus X-rays likely dominated
by the jet. We find that their ratios of radio core to total X-ray luminosity
are low and in the regime indicative of synchrotron X-rays. This result shows
that also blazars with strong emission lines can produce jets of high-energy
synchrotron emission and undermines at least in part the ``blazar sequence''
scenario which advocates that particle Compton cooling by an external radiation
field governs the frequency of the synchrotron emission peak.Comment: 26 pages, 33 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap
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