The study of an interaction between an interstellar medium and the jet around knot E and knot F of radio galaxy M87 by Chandra

TL;DR

This study analyzes Chandra X-ray images of M87's jet to investigate interactions with the interstellar medium, finding no thermal emission but confirming a soft X-ray dip outside the jet.

Contribution

It presents original image analysis removing pile-up effects and provides new insights into the X-ray environment around M87's jet.

Findings

Confirmed a dip in soft X-ray outside the jet between knots E and F.

X-ray spectra of knots E and F are consistent with synchrotron emission.

No thermal emission detected in the analyzed regions.

Abstract

The jet may compress an interstellar medium and soft X-ray may be absorbed outside the jet by a compressed interstellar medium and thermal emission heated by a shock is expected inside the jet. I analyze X-ray image of surroundings of the jet of M87 by Chandra. There is an original work for image analysis. In this time, I select data for image by removal of pile up event completely. I confirm a dip in soft X-ray outside the jet between knot E and knot F with 260 ks archival data. I analyze X-ray energy spectra for knot E and knot F with 400 ks archival data by Chandra in order to search for thermal emission. However, X-ray energy spectra for knot E and knot F are well described with synchrtron emission.