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[4.26] Optical Detections of the Radio Hotspots in Three Powerful 3CR Quasars

C.C. Cheung (Brandeis and Harvard-CfA), J.F.C. Wardle, T. Chen (Brandeis)

We report the detection of optical emission in the radio hotspots of the quasars 3C275.1, 3C336, and 3C454.3. The optical counterparts were discovered in a search through available HST archive images of these objects. Utilizing archival VLA and MERLIN data, the faint optical detections help us to constrain the break frequency (\nu_b) in the spectra of these high power hotspots. Assuming equipartition to estimate the magnetic field, the derived \nu_b-B of these hotspots lie near the high power extrapolation of the \nu_b\proptoB^-3 trend traced by Brunetti et al. (2003) from their observations of lower power hotspots, so lends further support to their simple particle acceleration picture.

This research is supported by NSF and NASA.

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 36 #3
© 2004. The American Astronomical Soceity.