Tuesday, December 20, 2011

1106.1397 (Philipp P. Kronberg et al.)

Measurement of the Electric Current in a Kpc-Scale Jet    [PDF]

Philipp P. Kronberg, Richard V. E. Lovelace, Giovanni Lapenta, Stirling A. Colgate
We present radio emission, polarization, and Faraday rotation maps of the radio jet of the galaxy 3C303. From this data we derive the magnetoplasma and electrodynamic parameters of this 50 kpc long jet. For a {$\sim 2$} kpc segment of this jet we obtain for the first time a direct determination of a {\it galactic}-scale electric current ($\sim 3 \times 10^{18}$ A), and its direction $-$ {\it positive} away from the AGN. Our analysis strongly supports a model where the jet energy flow is mainly electromagnetic.
View original: http://arxiv.org/abs/1106.1397

No comments:

Post a Comment