Synchrotron Thermal Instabilities and Radio Filaments in the Lobes of Cygnus A

Abstract

Recent VLA observations of the lobes of Cygnus A exhibit complex “filamentary” structures, with typical scale width ~ 1 arcsec (Dreher, Carilli and Perley, 1987, Perley, 1987). The filaments appear aligned with the magnetic field, as results from polarization measures, suggesting that the field may play a fundamental role in the process of their formation.