Interaction of Cygnus A with its environment
Paul E. J. Nulsen (CfA), Andrew J. Young (Bristol), Ralph P. Kraft, (CfA), Brian R. McNamara (Waterloo), Michael W. Wise (ASTRON)

TL;DR
This paper studies the interaction of Cygnus A with its environment using Chandra X-ray observations, revealing nonthermal cocoon shocks, synchrotron X-ray jets, and a non-relativistic energy flow from the nucleus to hotspots.
Contribution
It provides new insights into the physical processes in Cygnus A, including the nature of X-ray emission and jet dynamics, based on detailed X-ray observations.
Findings
X-ray emission from cocoon shocks is nonthermal
X-ray jets are interpreted as synchrotron emission
Jet flow is non-relativistic, carrying over one solar mass per year
Abstract
Cygnus A, the nearest truly powerful radio galaxy, resides at the centre of a massive galaxy cluster. Chandra X-ray observations reveal its cocoon shocks, radio lobe cavities and an X-ray jet, which are discussed here. It is argued that X-ray emission from the outer regions of the cocoon shocks is nonthermal. The X-ray jets are best interpreted as synchrotron emission, suggesting that they, rather than the radio jets, are the path of energy flow from the nucleus to the hotspots. In that case, a model shows that the jet flow is non-relativistic and carries in excess of one solar mass per year.
Peer Reviews
No public reviews on file for this paper yet. If you reviewed it on a platform where reviews are public (OpenReview, ICLR, NeurIPS, ICML), you can paste yours below so the community can read it here.
Videos
No videos yet. Explain this paper in a talk, walkthrough, or lecture? Add one.
