Friday, August 3, 2012

1208.0584 (C. C. Cheung et al.)

Discovery of a Kiloparsec Scale X-ray/Radio Jet in the z=4.72 Quasar GB 1428+4217    [PDF]

C. C. Cheung, L. Stawarz, A. Siemiginowska, D. Gobeille, J. F. C. Wardle, D. E. Harris, D. A. Schwartz
We report the discovery of a one-sided 3.6" (24 kpc, projected) long jet in the high-redshift, z=4.72, quasar GB 1428+4217 in new Chandra X-ray and VLA radio observations. This is the highest redshift kiloparsec-scale X-ray/radio jet known. Analysis of archival VLBI 2.3 and 8.6 GHz data reveal a faint one-sided jet extending out to ~200 parsecs and aligned to within ~30 deg of the Chandra/VLA emission. The 3.6" distant knot is not detected in an archival HST image, and its broad-band spectral energy distribution is consistent with an origin from inverse Compton scattering of cosmic microwave background photons for the X-rays. Assuming also equipartition between the radiating particles and magnetic field, the implied jet Lorentz factor is ~5. This is similar to the other two known z ~ 4 kpc-scale X-ray jet cases and smaller than typically inferred in lower-redshift cases. Although there are still but a few such very high-redshift quasar X-ray jets known, for an inverse Compton origin, the present data suggest that they are less relativistic on large-scales than their lower-redshift counterparts.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1208.0584

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