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[8.03] X-ray Emission Processes for Radio Jet Features

D. E. Harris, W. H. Tucker (SAO)

We review emission processes for extragalactic radio sources which produce X-rays from hotspots and knots in radio jets. In almost all cases, the emitting feature shows a large gradient in radio brightness, indicative of the presence of a strong shock. We discuss the evidence that synchrotron self-Compton models are successful only for terminal hotspots in FRII radio galaxies. For some knots in the jets of quasars and FRI radio galaxies, the most likely situation is the presence of \gamma=10⁷ electrons producing X-ray synchrotron emission. The major problem remaining is why no optical emission has been detected in some cases. While a somewhat unique situation exists for 3C 390.3, problems remain for Pictor A, 3C 120, and the quasar jets in 3C 273 and PKS 0637.

This research was partially funded by NASA contract NAS8-39073.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: harris@cfa.harvard.edu