Naoki Isobe

ABSTRACT The far-infrared counterpart of hotspot D, the terminal hotspot of the eastern jet hosted by the radio galaxy Cygnus A, is detected with Herschel Aperture photometry of the source performed in 5 photometric bands covering the wavelength range of 70–350 $\mu$m. After removing the contamination from another nearby hotspot, E, the far-infrared intensity of hotspot D is derived as 83 ± 13 and 269 ± 66 mJy at 160 and 350 $\mu$m, respectively. Since the far-infrared spectrum of the object smoothly connects to the radio one, the far-infrared emission is attributed to the synchrotron radiation from the radio-emitting electron population. The radio-to-near-infrared spectrum is confirmed to exhibit a far-infrared break feature at the frequency of $\nu _\mathrm{br}=2.0^{+1.2}_{-0.8} \times 10^{12}$ Hz. The change in energy index at the break (Δα = 0.5) is interpreted as the impact of radiative cooling on an electron distribution sustained by continuous injection from diffusive shock acceleration. By ascribing the derived break to this cooling break, the magnetic field, B, in the hotspot is determined as a function of its radius, R within a uniform one-zone model combined with the strong relativistic shock condition. An independent B–R constraint is obtained by assuming the X-ray spectrum is wholly due to synchrotron self-Compton emission. By combining these conditions, the two parameters are tightly determined as B = 120–150 μG and R = 1.3–1.6 kpc. A further investigation into the two conditions indicates the observed X-ray flux is highly dominated by the synchrotron self-Compton emission.

Mid-infrared properties are reported of the west hot spot of the radio galaxy Pictor A with the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). The mid-infrared counterpart to the hot spot, WISE J051926.26-454554.1, is listed in the AllWISE source catalog. The source was detected in all four of the WISE photometric bands. A comparison between the WISE and radio images reinforces the physical association of the WISE source to the hot spot. The WISE flux density of the source was carefully evaluated. A close investigation of the multi-wavelength synchrotron spectral energy distribution from the object reveals a mid-infrared excess at the wavelength of lambda = 22 mu m with a statistical significance of 4.8 sigma over the simple power-law extrapolation from the synchrotron radio spectrum. The excess is reinforced by single and double cutoff power-law modeling of the radio-to-optical spectral energy distribution. The synchrotron cutoff frequency of the main and excess components was evaluated as 7.1 x 10(14) Hz and 5.5 x 10(13) Hz, respectively. From the cutoff frequency, the magnetic field of the emission region was constrained as a function of the region size. In order to interpret the excess component, an electron population different from the main one dominating the observed radio spectrum is necessary. The excess emission is proposed to originate in a substructure within the hot spot, in which the magnetic field is a factor of a few stronger than that in the minimum-energy condition. The relation of the mid-infrared excess to the X-ray emission is briefly discussed.

Nearby active galactic nuclei were diagnosed in the X-ray and mid-to-far infrared wavelengths with Monitor of All-sky X-ray Image (MAXI) and the Japanese infrared observatory AKARI, respectively. One hundred of the X-ray sources listed in the second release of theMAXI all-sky X-ray source catalog are currently identified as non-blazar-type active galactic nuclei. These include 95 Seyfert galaxies and 5 quasars, and they are composed of 73 type-1 and 27 type-2 objects. The AKARI all-sky survey point source catalog was searched for their mid-and far-infrared counterparts at 9, 18, and 90 mu m. As a result, 69 Seyfert galaxies in the MAXI catalog (48 type-1 and 21 type-2) were found to be detected with AKARI. The X-ray (3-4 keV and 4-10 keV) and infrared luminosities of these objects were investigated, together with their color information. Adopting the canonical photon index, Gamma = 1.9, of the intrinsic X-ray spectrum of the Seyfert galaxies, the X-ray hardness ratio between the 3-4 and 4-10 keV ranges derived with MAXI was roughly converted into the absorption column density. After the X-ray luminosity was corrected for absorption from the estimated column density, the well-known X-ray-to-infrared luminosity correlation was confirmed, at least in the Compton-thin regime. In contrast, NGC 1365, the only Compton-thick object in the MAXI catalog, was found to deviate from the correlation toward a significantly lower X-ray luminosity by nearly an order of magnitude. It was verified that the relation between the X-ray hardness below 10 keV and X-ray-to-infrared color acts as an effective tool to pick up Compton-thick objects. The difference in the infrared colors between the type-1 and type-2 Seyfert galaxies and its physical implication on the classification and unification of active galactic nuclei are briefly discussed.