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Single vs Double hot spots for BH Jets? (e.g. Pictor A)



 
 
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  #1  
Old January 19th 17, 04:53 AM posted to sci.astro.research
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Default Single vs Double hot spots for BH Jets? (e.g. Pictor A)

Example object, Pictor A
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2016/pictora/

in particular, the x ray Chandra image:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/201...ctora_xray.jpg

Question 1:

Has anyone proposed any model that describes a mechanism to produce
a single BH jet, or, alternating BH jets (e.g. the jet shoots one
way for a while, then the other way for a while, alternating back
and forth)?

Question 2:

*IF* there are 2 jets active, and both are active for the same
duration, then wouldn't we observe a pair of Hot Spots of the same
size? We clearly see a hot spot on the right side, but there isn't
one on the left side (there are other sources, but they are all
smaller in angular size, and there isn't a source at the location
of the protrusion where the jet recently had been.)

If one is to contend that the jet wanders, and that's why we don't
see the counter hot spot because it recently moved from where the
optical / radio extension is, then the same must be true for the
primary jet coming toward us.............is there an example of a
primary jet coming toward us *without* a hot spot?

Question 3:

If the primary jet on the right side were to turn off at time 0,
how long would it take for the heated x ray gas to cool off so that
we no longer saw a hot spot? tens, thousands, millions of years?
I have no sense on time scale for this intergalactic gas cooling
process so any guesses appreciated.

The point is, if the counter jet hot spot has cooled due to motion,
the cooling time is indicative of the jet pointing change velocity
if there is no observable hot spot. But the same must then apply
to all of the many similar objects that do not show counter jet hot
spots.

Am I missing something important here? What is it?

Thanks,

rt
  #2  
Old January 20th 17, 05:44 PM posted to sci.astro.research
Martin Brown
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Posts: 1,707
Default Single vs Double hot spots for BH Jets? (e.g. Pictor A)

On 19/01/2017 03:53, wrote:
Example object, Pictor A
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2016/pictora/

in particular, the x ray Chandra image:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/201...ctora_xray.jpg

Question 1:

Has anyone proposed any model that describes a mechanism to produce
a single BH jet, or, alternating BH jets (e.g. the jet shoots one
way for a while, then the other way for a while, alternating back
and forth)?


The only way I could see that there might be a significant asymmetry is
when a BH has run out of matter to consume and the last gulp wasn't
evenly distributed so that one pole runs out before the other. This
would be quite rare and only during the transition to quiescence.

Otherwise for an active BH I think the standard model pretty much
requires that the jets are symmetric. See for example:

http://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/Carilli/Car2_1.html

And go back to contents for a nice review of Cygnus A.

However time of flight considerations could mean that there hasn't yet
been time for the light from the more distant hotspot of two to reach us
in the case of a source where the jet is almost pointing at us.

Question 2:

*IF* there are 2 jets active, and both are active for the same
duration, then wouldn't we observe a pair of Hot Spots of the same
size? We clearly see a hot spot on the right side, but there isn't
one on the left side (there are other sources, but they are all
smaller in angular size, and there isn't a source at the location
of the protrusion where the jet recently had been.)


The main reasons for not seeing the other hotspot I can think of are
either relativistic beaming making the one coming towards us appear very
much brighter or something in the way (or a bit of both).

The angle the jet makes with our line of sight affects how they look.

If one is to contend that the jet wanders, and that's why we don't
see the counter hot spot because it recently moved from where the
optical / radio extension is, then the same must be true for the
primary jet coming toward us.............is there an example of a
primary jet coming toward us *without* a hot spot?


I suspect relativistic beaming makes this very unlikely.

Question 3:

If the primary jet on the right side were to turn off at time 0,
how long would it take for the heated x ray gas to cool off so that
we no longer saw a hot spot? tens, thousands, millions of years?
I have no sense on time scale for this intergalactic gas cooling
process so any guesses appreciated.


3C452 sort of answers this slightly in that there are faint relics of
much older radio lobes seen at 325MHz but not at GHz and some distance
far out from the modern hotspots and brighter lobes associated with
them. See for example:

http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10...8205/765/1/L11

As high resolution high dynamic range aperture synthesis images become
available at lower frequencies I expect more of these will be found.

The point is, if the counter jet hot spot has cooled due to motion,
the cooling time is indicative of the jet pointing change velocity
if there is no observable hot spot. But the same must then apply
to all of the many similar objects that do not show counter jet hot
spots.

Am I missing something important here? What is it?


One thing is that the light travel time to us from the furthest hotspot
is significantly longer than for the nearest one. So we are seeing the
two hotspots being illuminated by beams emitted from the BH at two quite
different times. If the beam wasn't steady then it is possible that at
the time we see the more distant spot the beam was quiescent.

I am out of date on some of this stuff but the fundamentals probably
haven't changed. Corrections and refinements welcomed.

BTW to the OP it would help point you at the right material if you gave
some idea of the level of mathematics and physics that you understand.

--
Regards,
Martin Brown
  #3  
Old January 23rd 17, 11:45 PM posted to sci.astro.research
[email protected]
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 35
Default Single vs Double hot spots for BH Jets? (e.g. Pictor A)

On Friday, January 20, 2017 at 8:44:02 AM UTC-8, Martin Brown wrote:
On 19/01/2017 03:53, wrote:
Example object, Pictor A
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/2016/pictora/

in particular, the x ray Chandra image:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/201...ctora_xray.jpg

Question 1:

Has anyone proposed any model that describes a mechanism to produce
a single BH jet, or, alternating BH jets (e.g. the jet shoots one
way for a while, then the other way for a while, alternating back
and forth)?


However time of flight considerations could mean that there hasn't yet
been time for the light from the more distant hotspot of two to reach us=


in the case of a source where the jet is almost pointing at us.


Regards,
Martin Brown


[Moderator's note: Please send non-encoded short lines. Hit RETURN
after 70 characters if your software shows you line breaks but doesn't
send them. -P.H.]

Thanks and good point, time of flight, as the jets are million light year l=
ong, we would see the jet toward us first, and the jet away from us second,=
with perhaps 2 million years to who knows, 10 million years from jet emerg=
ence to our current view which could be anywhere along that entire evolutio=
n. The thing is, I've seen a lot of pictures, but it's always presented th=
at the hot spot is coming toward us.

My point is that there ought to be 50% of these objects where the hot spot =
we observe is the hot spot of the receding jet. I understand beaming and h=
ow we might not observe the receding jet vs the jet coming at us. But, the=
hot spot should be relatively stationary and glowing, so that we see both =
hot spots if there are two to be seen. And if they shut down so, we ought =
to see half of them with the receding hot spot and no observed jet because =
it is receding.

I don't recall seeing a hot spot without a jet feeding it such that the hot=
spot is supposed to be the receding hot spot, and no jet is observed due t=
o alignment. Is there an image of this out there that anyone knows?

rt

  #4  
Old January 24th 17, 06:06 PM posted to sci.astro.research
Martin Brown
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,707
Default Single vs Double hot spots for BH Jets? (e.g. Pictor A)

On 23/01/2017 22:45, wrote:
On Friday, January 20, 2017 at 8:44:02 AM UTC-8, Martin Brown wrote:
On 19/01/2017 03:53,
wrote:
Example object, Pictor A


in particular, the x ray Chandra image:
http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/201...ctora_xray.jpg

Question 1:

Has anyone proposed any model that describes a mechanism to produce
a single BH jet, or, alternating BH jets (e.g. the jet shoots one
way for a while, then the other way for a while, alternating back
and forth)?


However time of flight considerations could mean that there hasn't yet
been time for the light from the more distant hotspot of two to reach us=


in the case of a source where the jet is almost pointing at us.


[Moderator's note: Please send non-encoded short lines. Hit RETURN
after 70 characters if your software shows you line breaks but doesn't
send them. -P.H.]


Its sometimes hard to know if your mail client is misbehaving this way.

Thanks and good point, time of flight, as the jets are million light year l=
ong, we would see the jet toward us first, and the jet away from us second,=
with perhaps 2 million years to who knows, 10 million years from jet emerg=
ence to our current view which could be anywhere along that entire evolutio=
n. The thing is, I've seen a lot of pictures, but it's always presented th=
at the hot spot is coming toward us.


The brightest one will be since we get the benefit of it being nearer,
geometrical line of sight into the beam and relativistic beaming. The
near hotspot we are looking directly at the impact shock front of the
relativistic beam into pristine IGM but on the far side we are looking
at the shock front through the backwash of material flowing away.

My point is that there ought to be 50% of these objects where the hot spot =
we observe is the hot spot of the receding jet. I understand beaming and h=
ow we might not observe the receding jet vs the jet coming at us. But, the=
hot spot should be relatively stationary and glowing, so that we see both =
hot spots if there are two to be seen. And if they shut down so, we ought =
to see half of them with the receding hot spot and no observed jet because =
it is receding.


It is fair to point out here that FRII are the most powerful radio
galaxies where the jets are way more potent than the IGM. OTOH FRI radio
galaxies have a puny jet strength compared to the IGM and look more like
terrestrial smoke stacks fighting against wind shear.

3C465 being a canonical nice bright well studied example:
http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/atlas/object/3C465.html

Or for an example 3C83.1 having a really bad hair day:
http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/atlas/object/3C83P1B.html

I don't recall seeing a hot spot without a jet feeding it such that the hot=
spot is supposed to be the receding hot spot, and no jet is observed due t=
o alignment. Is there an image of this out there that anyone knows?


3C16 is the closest I can think of where there is a huge asymmetry
between the brightness of the lobes and hotspots.

http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/atlas/object/3C16.html

You might want to look through the DRAGN catalogue at Jodrell Bank to
get a feel for what variable morphology of radio galaxies looks like:

http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/atlas/alpha.html

I'll also add the links for 3C84 and 3C303 with hotspots seen inside the
radio lobes that I forgot from a previous post:

http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/atlas/object/3C84.html

http://www.jb.man.ac.uk/atlas/object/3C303.html

Historical note for the OP.

Radio sources named Constellation A/B/C etc date from the birth of radio
astronomy and are big, very bright and well studied at many wavelengths
and resolutions.

Radio sources named 3Cnnn are from the third Cambridge catalogue (the
first truly reliable one that didn't overstate the numbers due to
sidelobe problems) and are again bright and amenable to detailed study
by modern instruments. Radio source numbers was a hot topic in the 60's
since it showed up another flaw in the Steady State theory. Namely that
looking back in time the early universe was a much more exciting place
than it is today (not at all good news for Steady State proponents).

--
Regards,
Martin Brown
  #5  
Old February 6th 17, 06:56 AM posted to sci.astro.research
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Single vs Double hot spots for BH Jets? (e.g. Pictor A)

On Tuesday, January 24, 2017 at 9:06:13 AM UTC-8, Martin Brown wrote:
On 23/01/2017 22:45, wrote:
On Friday, January 20, 2017 at 8:44:02 AM UTC-8, Martin Brown wrote:


Thanks for the links and comments.

Question: Is there evidence that material (gas and or stars) is
"raining" back down onto galaxies where the radio jets appear to
be old and fading?

In other words, suppose FR I galaxies with intense jets observed
near the central engine are "young" and FR II galaxies with wider
opening angles are "older", meaning, it's been longer since the
initial launch of the radio jets.

then, objects with fading radio lobes, and no central jets, are
taken to be older still.

(does this classification fit what people think?.....and)

Is there any evidence for material (gas and or stars) raining back
down onto the galaxies? And if so, does it fit that the above
sequence holds, with the matter raining back down being most
associated with the "oldest" systems, ie, longest time since initial
jet launch?

In other words, if excess angular momentum is what gives rise to
the jets, then, shutting down that angular momentum would kill the
jets. If matter is ejected along the polar axis, and then that
material later rains down onto the galaxy, the angular momentum of
the "rain" would be orthogonal to the angular momentum of the jets,
thus, shutting down the jets.

Is this logic in keeping with consensus thinking?

Thanks,

Ross

[[Mod. note -- I am not an expert in this area, but (following the
standard model of jet production from accretion onto a supermassive
central black hole):
1. The angular momentum which gives rise to the jet would be that of
the accretion disk very close to the central supermassive BH (say
within no more than 100 Schwarzschild radia). The jets would come
out just about radially (along the BH's rotation axis, perpendicular
to the accretion disk), and so carry little net angular momentum.
(Recall that purely radial motion has zero angular momentum.)
2. I think jets usually start out going much faster than a galaxy's
(or even a galaxy cluster's) escape velocity. The jet then plows
into the interstellar medium in the galaxy, but I personally have
no idea of how much mass or linear/angular momentum ever returns
to the vicinity of the central BH. Is there enough to be a significant
influence on the accretion disk, magnetic field, or the BH's mass/spin?
Hopefully someone who knows the relevant modelling can provide
better-informed answers than my educated-guesses.
-- jt]]
  #6  
Old February 8th 17, 04:45 PM posted to sci.astro.research
Martin Brown
external usenet poster
 
Posts: 1,707
Default Single vs Double hot spots for BH Jets? (e.g. Pictor A)

On 06/02/2017 05:56, wrote:
On Tuesday, January 24, 2017 at 9:06:13 AM UTC-8, Martin Brown wrote:
On 23/01/2017 22:45,
wrote:
On Friday, January 20, 2017 at 8:44:02 AM UTC-8, Martin Brown wrote:


Thanks for the links and comments.

Question: Is there evidence that material (gas and or stars) is
"raining" back down onto galaxies where the radio jets appear to
be old and fading?


I shouldn't expect so. The momentum of the jet carries the shocked
material along with it away from the galaxy probably forever. There will
be some backwash but it won't have anything like the velocity to carry
it back to the core. Rough indications from the shapes of radio lobes in
powerful FR II sources are perhaps 1/3 the way back at most.

In other words, suppose FR I galaxies with intense jets observed
near the central engine are "young" and FR II galaxies with wider
opening angles are "older", meaning, it's been longer since the
initial launch of the radio jets.


There is a significant difference between the power of the central
engine in FR I and FR II galaxies with the latter being pretty much the
biggest and most powerful things in the universe. Whilst I would think
it possible that an FR I might sometimes evolve into an FR II by either
excessive feeding or BH merger. I don't think any would go the other
way. A discussion of their characteristics and modern interpretation is
online he

https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/..._fanaroff.html

then, objects with fading radio lobes, and no central jets, are
taken to be older still.

(does this classification fit what people think?.....and)

Is there any evidence for material (gas and or stars) raining back
down onto the galaxies? And if so, does it fit that the above
sequence holds, with the matter raining back down being most
associated with the "oldest" systems, ie, longest time since initial
jet launch?


I get the feeling you are thinking about the jets as fountains rather
than as astrophysical things. The backwash does fill up some of the void
punched out by the jet but I can't see if has much scope for raining
down onto the galaxy. It is way too tenuous for that.

One of the early incorrect models for double radio galaxies were that
the lobes were effectively plumes of less dense hot plasma rising
buoyantly in the intergalactic medium. Like hot air does on Earth.

In other words, if excess angular momentum is what gives rise to
the jets, then, shutting down that angular momentum would kill the
jets. If matter is ejected along the polar axis, and then that
material later rains down onto the galaxy, the angular momentum of
the "rain" would be orthogonal to the angular momentum of the jets,
thus, shutting down the jets.


It isn't excess angular momentum causing the jets it is the very fact
that the BH is spinning and magnetised. This provides a way to extract a
huge amount of rest mass energy out of infalling matter some of which
gets converted to jets escaping at the *poles* like aurora in reverse
but carrying away very little angular momentum compared with what is
being the input by the accretion disk. Arguably it may well be spinning
up a central BH by accretion of gas and stars at the centre of the
galaxy that spins them up to the point where the FRII relativistic jets
kick in. Prior to that FRI's only have jets with a roughly comparable
energy to the IGM and so get blown around more like smoke on Earth.

Is this logic in keeping with consensus thinking?


Not really. You are guessing and still haven't provided us with some
idea of where to pitch explanations.

[[Mod. note -- I am not an expert in this area, but (following the
standard model of jet production from accretion onto a supermassive
central black hole):
1. The angular momentum which gives rise to the jet would be that of
the accretion disk very close to the central supermassive BH (say
within no more than 100 Schwarzschild radia). The jets would come
out just about radially (along the BH's rotation axis, perpendicular
to the accretion disk), and so carry little net angular momentum.
(Recall that purely radial motion has zero angular momentum.)


One of the classic papers on jets is from 1979 Blandford & Konigl
https://ned.ipac.caltech.edu/level5/..._fanaroff.html
(Blandford and Rees is behind a paywall for non-academic use)

2. I think jets usually start out going much faster than a galaxy's
(or even a galaxy cluster's) escape velocity. The jet then plows
into the interstellar medium in the galaxy, but I personally have
no idea of how much mass or linear/angular momentum ever returns
to the vicinity of the central BH. Is there enough to be a significant
influence on the accretion disk, magnetic field, or the BH's mass/spin?
Hopefully someone who knows the relevant modelling can provide
better-informed answers than my educated-guesses.
-- jt]]


I don't know for certain but my instinct is that once the radiation from
the central source really gets going its radiation pressure will expel
any gas and dust that isn't falling towards it in big chunks and quite
fast. This isn't a bad review for the OP with fewer equations:

https://arxiv.org/pdf/astro-ph/0301309v1.pdf

--
Regards,
Martin Brown
  #7  
Old January 29th 17, 12:39 AM posted to sci.astro.research
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Single vs Double hot spots for BH Jets? (e.g. Pictor A)

@ross.t: there's a citizen science (crowd sourcing) project which
is very much related to your questions, in a general sense, Radio
Galaxy Zoo.
Main page: https://radio.galaxyzoo.org/#/
Discussion forum: https://radiotalk.galaxyzoo.org/

To repeat what's already been said, to be visible as radio
lobes/hotspots/jets/etc, the back-to-back relativistic jets created
near the SMBH in the nucleus have to get through, and be seen
through, first the ISM of the galaxy, then the IGM between galaxies.
It's nice if both are homogeneous, but often they aren't. And there's
relative motion too, producing such things as 'narrow angle tails'
and 'wide angle tails'.

On timescales: there's a class of radio sources called "giants",
lobe-to-lobe distances as great as 5 Mpc. There are also some which
are "restarted", in at least one case, at least three times.=20

On single vs double jets, there's a rare class of object called
"hybrid" or "HyMoRS" (Hybrid Morphology Radio Sources), where the
radio morphology of one side (jet/lobe) is extremely different from
that of the other.
 




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