Katherine Blundell OBE

Abstract:

We report on an effort to study the connections between dynamics in simulated radio galaxy plasma flows and the properties of non-thermal electron populations carried in those flows. To do this we have introduced a new numerical scheme for electron transport that allows a much more detailed look at this problem than has been possible before. Especially when the dynamics axe fully three dimensional the flows are generally chaotic in the cocoon, and the jet itself can flail about violently. The bending jet can pinch itself off and redirect itself to enhance its penetration of the ambient medium. These behaviours often eliminate the presence of a strong jet termination shock, which is assumed present in all modern cartoon models of the radio galaxy phenomenon. Instead a much more complex "shock web" forms near the end of the jet that leads to a far less predictable pattern of particle acceleration. Similarly, the magnetic fields in these flows are highly filamented, as well as spatially and temporally intermittent. This leads to a very localized and complex pattern of synchrotron aging for relativistic electron populations, which makes it difficult to use properties of the electron spectrum to infer the local rate of aging.

Abstract:

We show results from a 7 year VLBI monitoring programme of 3C 273 at millimetre wavelengths. We find evidence for component acceleration, motion or rotation of fluid dynamical patterns, and an outburst-ejection relation between gamma-ray flares and, new jet components.

Abstract:

We present HST images of the jet in 3C 273 at 622 nm and 300 nm and determine the variation of optical spectral index at 0.2 arcsec along the jet. We find no evidence for localized acceleration or loss sites: only slight changes in the spectral shape are observed throughout the jet. We consider this further evidence in favour of a distributed acceleration process.

Abstract:

We present preliminary results of a multi-frequency study of the inversion-symmetric radio galaxy NGC 326 based on VLA observations at 1.4, 1.6, 4.8, 8.5, and 14.9 GHz. These data allow us to investigate in detail the morphological, spectral and polarization properties of this peculiar object at different spatial resolutions.

Abstract:

For two decades the steady-state cooling-flow model has dominated-the literature of cluster and elliptical-galaxy X-ray sources. For ten years this model has been in severe difficulty from a theoretical point of view, and it is now coming under increasing pressure observationally A small number of enthusiasts have argued for a radically different interpretation of the data, but had little impacton prevailing opinion be-causeAhe unsteady heating picture that they-advocate is extremely hard to work out in detail. Here I explain why it is difficult to extract robust observational predictions from the heating picture. Major problems include the variability of the sources, the different ways in which a bi-polar flow can impact on X-ray emission, the weakness of synchrotron emission from sub-relativistic flows, and the sensitivity of synchrotron emission to a magnetic field that is probably highly localized.