Powerful extragalactic jets dissipate their kinetic energy far from the central black hole

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dc.contributor.authorHarvey, Adam Leah W.
dc.contributor.authorGeorganopoulos, Markos
dc.contributor.authorMeyer, Eileen T.
dc.date.accessioned2020-11-20T19:35:00Z
dc.date.available2020-11-20T19:35:00Z
dc.date.issued2020-10-30
dc.description.abstractAccretion onto the supermassive black hole in some active galactic nuclei (AGN) drives relativistic jets of plasma, which dissipate a significant fraction of their kinetic energy into gamma-ray radiation. The location of energy dissipation in powerful extragalactic jets is currently unknown, with implications for particle acceleration, jet formation, jet collimation, and energy dissipation. Previous studies have been unable to constrain the location between possibilities ranging from the sub-parsec-scale broad-line region to the parsec-scale molecular torus, and beyond. Here we show using a simple diagnostic that the more distant molecular torus is the dominant location for powerful jets. This diagnostic, called the seed factor, is dependent only on observable quantities, and is unique to the seed photon population at the location of gamma-ray emission. Using 62 multiwavelength, quasi-simultaneous spectral energy distributions of gamma-ray quasars, we find a seed factor distribution which peaks at a value corresponding to the molecular torus, demonstrating that energy dissipation occurs ~1 parsec from the black hole (or ~10⁴ Schwarzchild radii for a 10⁹M⊙ black hole).en_US
dc.description.sponsorshipA.L.W.H. and M.G. acknowledge support from Fermi grant NNX14AQ71G.en_US
dc.description.urihttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-020-19296-6en_US
dc.format.extent5 pagesen_US
dc.genrejournal articlesen_US
dc.identifierdoi:10.13016/m2p29y-nx6m
dc.identifier.citationHarvey, A.L.W., Georganopoulos, M. & Meyer, E.T. Powerful extragalactic jets dissipate their kinetic energy far from the central black hole. Nat Commun 11, 5475 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19296-6en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19296-6
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11603/20125
dc.language.isoen_USen_US
dc.publisherSpringer Natureen_US
dc.relation.isAvailableAtThe University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC)
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Physics Department Collection
dc.relation.ispartofUMBC Faculty Collection
dc.rightsThis item is likely protected under Title 17 of the U.S. Copyright Law. Unless on a Creative Commons license, for uses protected by Copyright Law, contact the copyright holder or the author.
dc.rightsAttribution 4.0 International*
dc.rights.urihttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/*
dc.titlePowerful extragalactic jets dissipate their kinetic energy far from the central black holeen_US
dc.typeTexten_US

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