Investigating the origin of X-ray jets: A case study of four hybrid morphology MOJAVE blazars

TL;DR

This study investigates the X-ray emission mechanisms in hybrid morphology blazars, finding that inverse Compton scattering of CMB photons explains the X-ray jets, emphasizing radio power over morphology.

Contribution

It provides the first detailed SED modeling of hybrid blazar jets, showing IC-CMB as the dominant X-ray emission process despite FR II-like powers.

Findings

X-ray jets detected in two blazars with high SNR

Single synchrotron model ruled out by optical/IR limits

IC-CMB model fits X-ray emission but requires extreme parameters

Abstract

We have carried out Chandra, HST, and VLA observations of four MOJAVE blazars that have been previously classified as 'hybrid' (FR I/II) blazars in terms of radio morphology but not total radio power. The motivation of this study is to determine the X-ray emission mechanism in jets, these being different in FR I and FR II jets. We detected X-ray jet emission with sufficient SNR in two blazars viz. PKS 0215+015 and TXS 0730+504. We carried out spectral energy distribution (SED) modeling of the broad-band emission from the jet regions in these sources and found that a single synchrotron emission model is ruled out due to the deep upper limits obtained from HST optical and IR data. The IC- CMB model can reproduce the X-ray jet emission in both sources although the model requires extreme jet parameters. Both our sources possess FR II like radio powers and our results are consistent with previous studies suggesting that radio power is more important than FR morphology in determining the emission mechanism of X-ray jets.