Resubmitted to respond to second set of concerns expressed by contact scientists. ----- Submission 1 (Thu May 26 19:46:27 GMT 2005) ----- Phase II Proposal 10541 (proposal) successfully submitted. ----- Submission 2 (Wed Sep 07 16:10:40 GMT 2005) ----- Phase II Proposal 10541 (proposal) successfully submitted. ----- Submission 3 (Tue Oct 11 19:36:45 GMT 2005) ----- Proposal was in fact run through "Run all tools" and passed. This is a Mac error. Assigned ID: 482 ----- Submission 1 (Fri Jan 21 22:46:21 GMT 2005) ----- Phase I Proposal 482 (proposal) successfully submitted. Probing the jet mattter content of quasar PKS 0637-752 The matter content (electron-proton vs electron-positron composition) of extragalactic jets remains unknown, despite over three decades of work. Here, we propose NICMOS/NIC3 and ACS observations of the Chandra-detected, one sided jet of the superluminal quasar PKS 0637-752 to derive the jet matter content by measuring the component of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB) radiation that is bulk-Comptonized (BC) by the cold electrons in the relativistically flowing large scale jet. What makes this source particularly suited for this procedure, is the absence of significant non-thermal jet emission from the 'bridge', the region between the core and the first bright knot WK7.8, guaranteeing that most of the electrons in the bridge are cold, leaving the BC scattered CMB radiation as the only significant source of photons in this region. The proposed NICMOS and ACS observations of the knot WK7.8 will provide spectral information in the IR-UV regime, which, together with existing multiwavelength data, will be used to derive the jet Doppler factor and minimum power necessary to power the knot emission as a function of the jet matter content. These will in turn be used to deduce, or strongly constrain, the actual jet matter content through comparison with the proposed NICMOS observations of the BC 'bridge' emission.
We propose NICMOS and ACS observations of the single-sided jet in quasar PKS 0637-752. For the NICMOS observations we have selected NIC3, because its large pixel size makes is ideal for detecting extended low brightness sources, such as the BC emission from the bridge connecting the core and the first knot WK7.8 of PKS 0637-752. More specifically, we propose a 7500s (3 orbit) observation of PKS 0637-752 with NIC3 using the F160W filter. According to the NICMOS Exposure Time Calculator, this will yield a S/N=3.00 for knot f_1.6 mu m=2.72 e-8 Jy. Also, for the same configuration, an extended source will be detectable at S/N=3.00 for f_1.6 mu m= 1.62e-7 Jy /arcsec^2. We also propose a 2500s (1 orbit) observation of PKS 0637-752 with WFC of ACS using the F475W filter. According to the ACS Exposure Time Calculator, this will yield a S/N=3.01 for f_4800 \AA=2.01e-8 Jy. In both the NICMOS and ACS calculations we assumed a power law spectrum F_nu ~nu^(-1), although the results did not change significantly for a range of plausible spectral indexes. These flux limits are sufficiently deep to guarantee the detection of the knots, and to ensure that the detection of or the deep flux limit imposed on the BC emission from the bridge will be sufficient to deduce or strongly constrain the jet matter content. We will also perform a short (1 min) ACS observation to obtain the flux of the quasar core. This will help us subtract the PSF, which will be important in detecting any inner jet emission. AGN/QUASARS 12 false 10 0.0 false false false false false SUPPORTED GALAXY JET KNOT QUASAR RADIO GALAXY This object was generated by the targetselector and retrieved from the SIMBAD database. 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