Helical magnetic fields associated with the relativistic jets of four BL Lac objects

By D. Gabuzda, E. Murray, P. Cronin. 2004

136 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Evidence has been mounting that many of the transverse jet B fields observed in BL Lac objects on parsec scales represent the dominant toroidal component of the intrinsic jet B fields. Such fields could come about, for example, as a result of the ‘winding up’ of an initial ‘seed’ field with a significant longitudinal component by the rotation of the central accreting object. If this is the case, this should give rise to gradients in the rotation measure across the jets, due to the systematic change in the line-of-sight component of the jet B field. We present evidence for transverse rotation measure gradients in four BL Lac objects, strengthening arguments that the jets of these objects do indeed have toroidal or helical B fields. This underlines the view of the jets as fundamentally electromagnetic structures, and suggests that they may well carry non-zero currents. It also provides a natural means to collimate the jets.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/72c5dc04076daf9e27eb711a2722e84da7b60884

How researchers see this paper

The researchers whose trusted networks rank it highest, strongest advocate first. Every researcher gets a different order.

In Astronomy and Astrophysics

1. L. Sironi
2. A. Spitkovsky
3. Judith Croston
4. M. Begelman
5. D. Giannios
6. M. Hardcastle
7. Jan Lasota
8. M. Sikora

In Electrical and Electronic Engineering

1. A. Spitkovsky
2. L. Sironi
3. M. Begelman

In Nuclear and High Energy Physics

1. L. Sironi
2. A. Spitkovsky
3. Judith Croston
4. D. Giannios
5. M. Hardcastle
6. M. Sikora
7. G. Madejski
8. M. Begelman

Citations in the corpus

• Radio galaxies and feedback from AGN jets (2020, background): “Multi-frequency studies exploiting selfabsorption at lower frequencies can probe magnetic field strengths (O’Sullivan and Gabuzda, 2009) while polarization studies constrain the magnetic field configuration in the jets (Gabuzda et al., 2004).”
• PARTICLE ACCELERATION IN RELATIVISTIC MAGNETIZED COLLISIONLESS ELECTRON–ION SHOCKS (2010, background): “21 knots (Gabuzda et al. 2004; Pushkarev et al. 2005) indicate that the magnetic field is mostly transverse to the jet axis.”
• Are Quasar Jets Dominated by Poynting Flux? (2005, background): “The external origin of Faraday rotation is strongly indicated by the fact that in most objects the rotation follows the λ2-rule, where λ is the wavelength of the electromagnetic radiation (Gabuzda et al. 2004; Zavala & Taylor 2004).”
• PARTICLE ACCELERATION IN RELATIVISTIC MAGNETIZED COLLISIONLESS PAIR SHOCKS: DEPENDENCE OF SHOCK ACCELERATION ON MAGNETIC OBLIQUITY (2009, background): “Such shocks should be quasi-perpendicular, since polarization measurements of radio knots (Gabuzda et al. 2004; Pushkarev et al. 2005) indicate that the magnetic field is mostly transverse to the jet axis.”