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I. L. Tregillis, T. W. Jones (U. Minnesota), D. Ryu (Chungnam National Univ.)
We are engaged in a study of the relationships between dynamics and nonthermal emissions from radio galaxies. Here we present a set of results from 3D MHD simulations of jet-driven flows. Our calculations include for the first time in such studies explicit treatment of the acceleration and transport of the nonthermal electrons responsible for radio synchrotron emission and X-ray Compton emission. The particle transport includes diffusive acceleration at shocks within the flows, as well as synchrotron ``aging''.
From this we compute self-consistent emission properties, thereby producing the first ``synthetic observations'' of their kind, including synchrotron surface-brightness and polarization maps. X-ray, inverse-Compton, surface-brightness maps may also be produced. Source properties such as hot spot magnetic pressure are inferred using standard observational methods, then compared to the ``true'' values contained within the simulation. In general we find an encouraging agreement between these values. We also apply these tools to the study of radiative aging in radio galaxies and find that the standard model often does not adequately reflect the detailed source structure. We find that equipartition arguments are likewise inaccurate. The robustness of these conclusions against variations in observational resolution is investigated.
We also find the structure of the jet terminus to be far more complicated than previously thought based on earlier 2D axisymmetric simulations, more appropriately described as a ``shock web complex'' rather than a simple terminal shock.
This work is supported at the University of Minnesota by the NSF and the Minnesota Supercomputing Institute and at Chungnam National University by KOSEF through the Korea-US Cooperative Science Program.
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The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: tregilli@msi.umn.edu