The Infrared‐dominated Jet of 3C 401

Abstract

We present a Hubble Space Telescope image of the FR II radio galaxy 3C 401, obtained at 1.6 μm with NICMOS, in which we identify the infrared counterpart of the brightest region of the radio jet. The jet has a complex radio structure and brightens where bending occurs, most likely as a result of relativistic beaming. We analyze archival data in the radio, optical, and X-ray bands, and we derive its spectral energy distribution. Unlike all of the previously known optical extragalactic jets, the jet in 3C 401 is not detected in the X-rays, even in a long 48 ks X-ray Chandra exposure, and the infrared emission dominates the overall spectral energy distribution (SED). We propose that the dominant radiation mechanism of this jet is synchrotron. The low X-ray emission is then caused by two different effects: (1) the lack of any strong external photon field and (2) the shape of the electron distribution. This affects the location of the synchrotron peak in the SED, resulting in a sharp cutoff at energies lower than the X-rays. Thus 3C 401 shows a new type of jet, with intermediate spectral properties between those of FR I galaxies, which are dominated by synchrotron emission up to X-ray energies, and FR II galaxies/QSOs, which show strong high-energy emission due to inverse Compton scattering of external photons. This might indicate the presence of a continuous in the properties of large-scale jets, analogous to the blazar sequence already proposed for subparsec-scale jets.