297 research outputs found

    Extragalactic sources with asymmetric radio structure I. Observations of 17 sources

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    We present total-intensity and linear-polarization observations with the Very Large Array (VLA) at λ6 and 2 cm of 17 sources, almost all of which were suspected to have extended emission only on one side of the nucleus. Five of them are still one-sided, three appear unresolved, while seven have radio lobes on both sides of the nucleus. The outer components in the double-lobed sources, however, have significantly different surface brightness or are very asymmetrically located with respect to the nucleus

    Cosmological Studies with Radio Galaxies and Supernovae

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    Physical sizes of extended radio galaxies can be employed as a cosmological "standard ruler", using a previously developed method. Eleven new radio galaxies are added to our previous sample of nineteen sources, forming a sample of thirty objects with redshifts between 0 and 1.8. This sample of radio galaxies are used to obtain the best fit cosmological parameters in a quintessence model in a spatially flat universe, a cosmological constant model that allows for non-zero space curvature, and a rolling scalar field model in a spatially flat universe. Results obtained with radio galaxies are compared with those obtained with different supernova samples, and with combined radio galaxy and supernova samples. Results obtained with different samples are consistent, suggesting that neither method is seriously affected by systematic errors. Best fit radio galaxy and supernovae model parameters determined in the different cosmological models are nearly identical, and are used to determine dimensionless coordinate distances to supernovae and radio galaxies, and distance moduli to the radio galaxies. The distance moduli to the radio galaxies can be combined with supernovae samples to increase the number of sources, particularly high-redshift sources, in the samples. The constraints obtained here with the combined radio galaxy plus supernovae data set in the rolling scalar field model are quite strong. The best fit parameter values suggest a value of omega is less than about 0.35, and the model parameter alpha is close to zero; that is, a cosmological constant provides a good description of the data. We also obtain new constraints on the physics of engines that power the large-scale radio emission.Comment: 32 pages. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

    Optical Nuclei of Radio-loud AGN and the Fanaroff-Riley Divide

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    We investigate the nature of the point-like optical ``cores'' that have been found in the centres of the host galaxies of a majority of radio galaxies by the Hubble Space Telescope. We examine the evidence that these optical cores are relativistically beamed, and look for differences in the behaviour of the cores found in radio galaxies of the two Fanaroff-Riley types. We also attempt to relate this behaviour to the properties of the optical nuclei in their highly beamed counterparts (the BL Lac objects and radio-loud quasars) as hypothesized by the simple Unified Scheme. Simple model-fitting of the data suggests that the emission may be coming from a non-thermal relativistic jet. It is also suggestive that the contribution from an accretion disk is not significant for the FRI objects and for the narrow-line radio galaxies of FRII type, while it may be significant for the Broad-line objects, and consistent with the idea that the FRII optical cores seem to suffer from extinction due to an obscuring torus while the FRI optical cores do not. These results are in agreement with the Unified Scheme for radio-loud AGNs.Comment: 16 pages including 7 figures and 6 tables, v3: Accepted for publication in A&

    CSSs in a sample of B2 radio sources of intermediate strength

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    We present radio observations of 19 candidate compact steep-spectrum (CSS) objects selected from a well-defined, complete sample of 52 B2 radio sources of intermediate strength. These observations were made with the VLA A-array at 4.835 GHz. The radio structures of the entire sample are summarised and the brightness asymmetries within the compact sources are compared with those of the more extended ones, as well as with those in the 3CRR sample and the CSSs from the B3-VLA sample. About 25 per cent of the CSS sources exhibit large brightness asymmetries, with a flux density ratio for the opposing lobes of >>5, possibly due to interaction of the jets with infalling material. The corresponding percentage for the larger-sized objects is only about 5 per cent. We also investigate possible dependence of the flux density asymmetry of the lobes on redshift, since this might be affected by more interactions and mergers in the past. No such dependence is found. A few individual objects of interest are discussed in the paper.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, 2 tables; accepted for publication in Astronomy and Astrophysic

    VLA Observations of a New Population of Blazars

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    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

    Parsec-scale Magnetic-Field Structures in HEAO-1 BL Lacs

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    We present very long baseline interferometry polarization images of an X-ray selected sample of BL Lacertae objects belonging to the first High Energy Astronomy Observatory (HEAO-1) and the ROSAT-Green Bank (RGB) surveys. These are primarily high-energy-peaked BL Lacs (HBLs) and exhibit core-jet radio morphologies on pc-scales. They show moderately polarized jet components, similar to those of low-energy-peaked BL Lacs (LBLs). The fractional polarization in the unresolved cores of the HBLs is, on average, lower than in the LBLs, while the fractional polarizations in the pc-scale jets of HBLs and LBLs are comparable. However a difference is observed in the orientation of the inferred jet magnetic fields -- while LBL jets are well-known to preferentially exhibit transverse magnetic fields, the HBL jets tend to display longitudinal magnetic fields. Although a `spine-sheath' jet velocity structure, along with larger viewing angles for HBLs could produce the observed magnetic field configuration, differences in other properties of LBLs and HBLs, such as their total radio power, cannot be fully reconciled with the different-angle scenario alone. Instead it appears that LBLs and HBLs differ intrinsically, perhaps in the spin rates of their central black holes.Comment: 41 pages, 21 figures, accepted for publication in MNRA

    Extended radio emission in MOJAVE Blazars: Challenges to Unification

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    We present the results of a study on the 1.4 GHz kpc-scale radio emission in the complete flux density limited MOJAVE sample, comprising 135 radio-loud AGNs. While extended emission is detected in the majority of the sources, about 7% of the sources exhibit only radio core emission. Many BL Lacs exhibit extended radio power and kpc-scale morphology typical of powerful FRII jets, while a substantial number of quasars possess radio powers intermediate between FRIs and FRIIs. This poses challenges to the simple radio-loud unified scheme, which links BL Lacs to FRIs and quasars to FRIIs. We find a significant correlation between extended radio emission and pc-scale jet speeds: the more radio powerful sources possess faster jets. This indicates that the 1.4 GHz (or low frequency) radio emission is indeed related to jet kinetic power. Various properties such as extended radio power and apparent pc-scale jet speeds vary smoothly between different blazar subclasses, suggesting that, at least in terms of radio jet properties, the distinction between quasars and BL Lac objects, at an emission-line equivalent width of 5 Angstrom is essentially an arbitrary one. Based on the assumption that the extended radio luminosity is affected by the kpc-scale environment, we define the ratio of extended radio power to absolute optical magnitude as a proxy for environmental effects. Trends with this parameter suggest that the pc-scale jet speeds and the pc-to-kpc jet misalignments are not affected by the large-scale environment, but are more likely to depend upon factors intrinsic to the AGN, or its local pc-scale environment. We suggest that some of the extremely misaligned MOJAVE blazar jets could be "hybrid" morphology sources, with an FRI jet on one side and an FRII jet on the other. (Abridged)Comment: 40 pages, 16 figures, accepted for publication in Ap

    HST Imaging of the Host Galaxies of High Redshift Radio-Loud Quasars

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    We present rest-frame UV and Ly-alpha images of spatially-resolved structures around five high-redshift radio-loud quasars obtained with the WFPC2 camera on the Hubble Space Telescope. We find that all five quasars are extended and this "fuzz" contains ~5-40% of the total continuum flux and 15-65% of the Ly-alpha flux within a radius of about 1.5 arcsec. The rest-frame UV luminosities of the hosts are log lambda P_lambda = 11.9 to 12.5 solar luminosities (assuming no internal dust extinction), comparable to the luminous radio galaxies at similar redshifts and a factor 10 higher than both radio-quiet field galaxies at z~2-3 and the most UV-luminous low redshift starburst galaxies. The Ly-alpha luminosities of the hosts are (in the log) approximately 44.3-44.9 erg/s which are also similar to the those of luminous high redshift radio galaxies and considerably larger than the Ly-alpha luminosities of high redshift field galaxies. To generate the Ly-alpha luminosities of the hosts would require roughly a few percent of the total observed ionizing luminosity of the quasar. We find good alignment between the extended Ly-alpha and the radio sources, strong evidence for jet-cloud interactions in two cases, again resembling radio galaxies, and what is possibly the most luminous radio-UV synchrotron jet in one of the hosts at z=2.110.Comment: 36 pages (latex, aas macros), 3 figures (3 gif and 10 postscript files), accepted for publication in the the Astrophysical Journal Supplement Serie

    High-redshift radio galaxies from the Molonglo catalogue

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    We report the result of radio and optical observations of a sample of southern hemisphere radio galaxies, selected from the Molonglo Reference Catalogue. The source were selected to have 408 MHz flux densities greater than 0.9 Jy and low-frequency spectral indices steeper than -0.9 VLA 6 cm maps and optical identifications of 13 sources are presented. All of these sources are indentified with faint galaxies, many of which have extended optical structures with morphologies characteristics od high redshift (Z > 0.8) radio galaxies. Long - slit spectroscopic observation have yielded redshifts for 11 of the galaxies, 5 of which are at Z > 2. The most distant source in the present sample, 0316 - 257, has a redshift of 3.13, while the median redshift for the sample is 1.6. Our result for this subsample suggest that our total sample of 150 sources may contain ~ 40 galaxies with Z > 2. We have imaged four of our galaxies having Z > 2 in the light of Lyα. Three of these have highly extended Lyα emission distributed along their radio axes
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