Optical detection and analysis of Pictor A's jet

Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, 2014.

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Gentry, Eric S
Other Authors: Herman L. Marshall.
Format: Thesis
Language:eng
Published: Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92613
_version_ 1811087691882692608
author Gentry, Eric S
author2 Herman L. Marshall.
author_facet Herman L. Marshall.
Gentry, Eric S
author_sort Gentry, Eric S
collection MIT
description Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, 2014.
first_indexed 2024-09-23T13:50:29Z
format Thesis
id mit-1721.1/92613
institution Massachusetts Institute of Technology
language eng
last_indexed 2024-09-23T13:50:29Z
publishDate 2015
publisher Massachusetts Institute of Technology
record_format dspace
spelling mit-1721.1/926132019-04-12T14:12:13Z Optical detection and analysis of Pictor A's jet Gentry, Eric S Herman L. Marshall. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics. Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics. Physics. Thesis: S.B., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, 2014. This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. Includes bibliographical references (pages 75-78). New images from the Hubble Space Telescope of the FRII radio galaxy Pictor A reveal a number of jet knot candidates which coincide with previously detected radio and x-ray knots. Previous observations in x-ray and radio bands show the entire jet to be 1.90 long, with interesting variability, but an optical component was previously unknown. The discovered optical component is faint, and knot candidates must be teased out from a bright host galaxy. Using three broadband lters, we extract knot fluxes and upper-bounds on the ux for multiple knot candidates at wavelengths of 1600nm, 814nm and 475nm. We nd that the data suggest that localized particle re-accleration events followed by synchrotron emission could explain the observed knot candidates, but those electrons could not supply enough x-ray ux to match prior observations. Our data provide key evidence suggesting a second, higher energy electron population which was previously hypothesized, but could not be confirmed. by Eric S. Gentry. S.B. 2015-01-05T19:36:18Z 2015-01-05T19:36:18Z 2014 2014 Thesis http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92613 898334012 eng M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission. http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582 78 pages application/pdf Massachusetts Institute of Technology
spellingShingle Physics.
Gentry, Eric S
Optical detection and analysis of Pictor A's jet
title Optical detection and analysis of Pictor A's jet
title_full Optical detection and analysis of Pictor A's jet
title_fullStr Optical detection and analysis of Pictor A's jet
title_full_unstemmed Optical detection and analysis of Pictor A's jet
title_short Optical detection and analysis of Pictor A's jet
title_sort optical detection and analysis of pictor a s jet
topic Physics.
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/92613
work_keys_str_mv AT gentryerics opticaldetectionandanalysisofpictorasjet