No abstract

We propose that the X-ray emission detected by Chandra from the 100-kiloparsec-scale jet of PKS 0637-752 is produced through inverse Compton scattering of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). We analyze the physical state of the jet and show that inverse Compton scattering from the CMB is consistent with equipartition for a moderate beaming of the emission, with Doppler factor δ ∼ 10. The power transported by the jet is then similar to that of other powerful blazars, L j ∼ 10 48 erg s −1 , and the jet has low radiative efficiency. The radiative cooling times of the electrons are a few thousand years, compatible with the size of the knot. The low-energy cutoff of the electron distribution is constrained to be γ min ∼ 10, the first such constraint from spectral considerations. A parallel analysis for the SSC model yields far less reasonable physical conditions.

We use three years of data from the Swift/Burst Alert Telescope (BAT) survey to select a complete sample of X-ray blazars above 15 keV. This sample comprises 26 flat-spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and 12 BL Lacertae (BL Lac) objects detected over a redshift range of 0.03 < z < 4.0. We use this sample to determine, for the first time in the 15-55 keV band, the evolution of blazars. We find that, contrary to the Seyfert-like active galactic nuclei (AGNs) detected by BAT, the population of blazars shows strong positive evolution. This evolution is comparable to the evolution of luminous optical quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) and luminous X-rayselected AGNs. We also find evidence for an epoch dependence of the evolution as determined previously for radio-quiet AGNs. We interpret both these findings as a strong link between accretion and jet activity. In our sample, the FSRQs evolve strongly, while our best fit shows that BL Lac objects might not evolve at all. The blazar population accounts for 10%-20% (depending on the evolution of the BL Lac objects) of the cosmic Xray background (CXB) in the 15-55 keV band. We find that FSRQs can explain the entire CXB emission for energies above 500 keV solving the mystery of the generation of the MeV background. The evolution of luminous FSRQs shows a peak in redshift (z c = 4.3 ± 0.5) which is larger than the one observed in QSOs and X-rayselected AGNs. We argue that FSRQs can be used as tracers of massive elliptical galaxies in the early universe.

The high-resolution X-ray spectrum of NGC 3783 shows several dozen absorption lines and a few emission lines from the H-like and He-like ions of O, Ne, Mg, Si, and S as well as from Fe XVII-Fe XXIII L-shell transitions. We have reanalyzed the Chandra HETGS spectrum using better flux and wavelength calibrations along with more robust methods. Combining several lines from each element, we clearly demonstrate the existence of the absorption lines and determine they are blueshifted relative to the systemic velocity by −610 ± 130 km s −1 . We find the Ne absorption lines in the High Energy Grating spectrum to be resolved with FWHM = 840 +490 −360 km s −1 ; no other lines are resolved. The emission lines are consistent with being at the systemic velocity. We have used regions in the spectrum where no lines are expected to determine the X-ray continuum, and we model the absorption and emission lines using photoionized-plasma calculations. The model consists of two absorption components, with different covering factors, which have an order of magnitude difference in their ionization parameters. The two components are spherically outflowing from the AGN and thus contribute to both the absorption and the emission via P Cygni profiles. The model also clearly requires O VII and O VIII absorption edges. The low-ionization component of our model can plausibly produce UV absorption lines with equivalent widths consistent with those observed from NGC 3783. However, we note that this result is highly sensitive to the unobservable UV-to-X-ray continuum, and the available UV and X-ray observations cannot firmly establish the relationship between the UV and X-ray absorbers. We find good agreement between the Chandra spectrum and simultaneous ASCA and RXTE observations. The 1 keV deficit previously found when modeling ASCA data probably arises from iron L-shell absorption lines not included in previous models. We also set an upper limit on the FWHM of the narrow Fe Kα emission line of 3250 km s −1 . This is consistent with this line originating outside the broad line region, possibly from a torus.