Technical Report: The Fastest Relativistic Jets from Quasars and Active Galactic Nuclei

Abstract

Among the major advances in astronomy over the past several decades has been the realization that supermassive black holes (up to of order 109 solar masses) are a ubiquitous feature at the centers of bright galaxies [1], including the center of our own Milky Way. Material from the host galaxy that is drawn close to the central supermassive black hole can form a rotating accretion disk around the central object. This infalling matter can liberate large amounts of gravitational binding energy as radiation, causing the hot accretion disk and surrounding gas to far outshine the host galaxy, and forming an object known as a quasar, or, at lower luminosity, an active galactic nucleus (AGN). Quasars are predominantly seen at large cosmological distances, and therefore at remote times in the past, presumably before they have exhausted the reserves of fuel surrounding the central black hole and become quiescent. Since quasars were first detected in 1963 [2], they have fascinated astronomers with their enormous energy outputs, far in excess of any other known type of object. These energy outputs allow them to be seen out to vast distances (out to redshifts greater than 6, corresponding to light travel times exceeding 12 billion years [3]).