Variability of the Intensity, Structure, and Magnetic Field in Compact Blazar Jets

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AST 98-02941 Marscher Although much progress has been made in exploring the nature of quasars, they are now only partly understood. The energetic phenomena associated with quasars are thought to be powered by accretion only massive black holes lying at the centers of the host galaxies. The fuel would be interstellar gas that passes through the nucleus of the galaxy, probably as a result of an encounter with another galaxy. The angular momentum of the accreting gas causes it to form a differentially rotating disk surrounding a black hole. In some of these objects - preferentially those that lie at the centers of elliptical galaxies - jets of magnetized ultrarelativistic plasma flow outward at speeds near that of light along the rotation axis of the disk. Dr. Marscher is studying the nature of the radio jets with highly variable nonthermal radiation that are observed in some quasars. These objects are part of the class known as Blazars. Dr. Marscher is comparing high-resolution, high-frequency radio images of actual jets with images of simulated jets obtained through hydrodynamic calculations. The observations will follow propagation of new knots down the jets (ejected roughly monthly from the core). The nature of the core itself is also explored, and the structure of the magnetic field. ***