Speaker
Mr
Matteo Lucchini
(Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy)
Description
The jets launched by accreting super-massive black holes can be
some of the brightest sources in the high-energy sky; despite be-
ing discovered decades ago, their physics and energetics are still
poorly understood. The past decade has seen a dramatic improve-
ment in the quality of available data, particularly in the X-ray and
γ-ray bands. However, the semi-analytical modelling of jets has ad-
vanced slowly, and simple one-zone models are still the preferred
method of interpreting data, in particular for AGN jets. These
models can roughly constrain the properties of jets but they can
not unambiguously couple their emission to the launching regions
and internal dynamics, which are usually probed with simulations.
However, simulations are not easily comparable to observations be-
cause they cannot yet self-consistently predict spectra. I will discuss
our group’s ongoing efforts to develop an advanced semi-analytical
model which accounts for the dynamics of the whole jet, starting
from a simplified parametrization of Relativistic Magnetohydrody-
namics in which the magnetic flux is converted into bulk kinetic
energy. We apply our model to state-of-the-art datasets of the BL
Lac PKS 2155−304 and of the radio galaxy M87 together with a
thorough exploration of parameter space. Compared to previous
modelling efforts this approach produces some of the best SED fits
for these sources to date and provides stronger constraints on jet
physics.
Primary author
Mr
Matteo Lucchini
(Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy)
Co-authors
Dr
Fe Krauss
(Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy)
Prof.
Markoff Sera
(Anton Pannekoek Institute for Astronomy)
Dr
Patrick Crumley
(Princeton University)
Dr
Riley Connors
(Cahill Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics)
