Dr. Eric Perlman
University of Maryland

University of Florida Astronomy Colloquium - Sep 15th, 2005

Discovering the Physics of AGN Jets

Jets are found in many settings and seem to be a ubiquitous byproduct of accretion onto compact objects. The jets of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are ejected at very nearly the speed of light, carrying an energy flux that can equal or exceed that of the host galaxy or the AGN. They propagate for enormous distances, up to hundreds of kiloparsecs before ending at hotspots where they interact with the surrounding cluster medium. Despite recent progress (much of it spurred by the discovery that X-ray emission from jets is commonplace), there are many gaps in our knowledge regarding their basic physics. I will discuss recent observational and theoretical work that gives us new insight into many of these issues, including their matter content and energetic structure, as well as the physical processes that stimulate high-energy emission.