Related papers: Do high redshift quasars have powerful jets?
It is still a mystery why only a small fraction of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) contain relativistic jets. Strong magnetic field is a necessary ingredient for jet formation, however, the advection of the external field in a geometrically…
Compact radio cores are not only common in radio galaxies and quasars but also in many nearby galaxies with low-active, supermassive black holes. One famous example is the Galactic Center source Sgr A*. Recent studies of proper motions and…
Recent works show that the radio power of quasars accreting at very high rates can reach surprisingly high values. These studies suggest that this radio emission might originate from star formation, but lack of data leaves open the…
The recent discoveries of luminous quasars at high redshifts imply that black holes more massive than a few billion solar masses have been assembled already when the universe was less than a billion years old. We show that the existence of…
We present Chandra X-ray observations of 14 radio-loud quasars at redshifts $3 < z < 4$, selected from a well-defined sample. All quasars are detected in the 0.5-7.0 keV energy band, and resolved X-ray features are detected in five of the…
We analyze the optical spectra of massive (log M*/Msun > 11.4) radio-loud galaxies at z~0.2 and z~0.6. By comparing stellar population parameters of these radio-loud samples with radio-quiet control samples, we investigate how the presence…
For understanding the diversity of jetted active galactic nuclei (AGN) and especially the puzzling wide range in their radio-loudness, it is important to understand what role the magnetic fields play in setting the power of relativistic…
I review some recent cosmological studies based on redshift surveys of radio sources selected at low frequencies. The accretion rate onto the central black hole is identified as the basis of a crude physical division of the low-frequency…
While supermassive black holes are ubiquitous features of galactic nuclei, only a small minority are observed during episodes of luminous accretion. The physical mechanism(s) driving the onset of fueling and ignition in these active…
The majority of nearby radio-loud AGN are found in massive, old elliptical galaxies with weak emission lines. At high redshifts,however, most known radio AGN have strong emission lines. In this paper, we examine a subset of radio AGN with…
We probe the role that the directional asymmetry, between relativistic outflows and kilo-parsec scale jets, play in the acceleration of cosmic rays. For this reason we use two powerful, nearby Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs). These radio…
Relativistic jets are the most energetic manifestation of the active galactic nucleus (AGN) phenomenon. AGN jets are observed from the radio through gamma-rays and carry copious amounts of matter and energy from the sub-parsec central…
Seyfert galaxies and quasars were first discovered through optical and radio techniques, but in recent years high-energy emission, that can penetrate central gas and dust, has become essentially the defining characteristic of an AGN. AGNs…
Centaurus A (Cen~A) is the nearest active radio galaxy, which has kiloparsec (kpc) scale jets and {giant lobes detected by various instruments in radio and X-ray frequency ranges}. The $Fermi$--Large Area Telescope and High Energy…
We present observations of a remarkable compact group of galaxies at $z = 2.48$. Four galaxies, all within 40 kpc of each other, surround a powerful high redshift radio source. This group comprises two compact red passive galaxies and a…
We explore the radio properties of powerful (rest-frame luminosity $\gtrsim10^{28}$ W Hz$^{-1}$ at 500 MHz) high-redshift (z > 3.5) quasars. The aim of this study is to gain a better understanding of radio-loud sources at the epoch when…
Updates are provided on several issues related to Unified Models. A new HST spectrum of Cygnus A confirms the broad MgII emission line, and suggests a very large velocity width as seen in the polarized optical lines. Statistics of the 3CR…
We present near-infrared spectra of young radio quasars [P(1.4GHz) ~ 26-27 W/Hz] selected from the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer. The detected objects have typical redshifts of z ~ 1.6-2.5 and bolometric luminosities ~ 10^47 erg/s.…
The existence of accreting supermassive black holes up to billions of solar masses at early cosmological epochs (in the context of this work, redshifts z>=6) requires very fast growth rates which is challenging to explain. The presence of a…
We are conducting a large survey of distant clusters of galaxies using radio sources with bent jets and lobes as tracers. These radio sources are driven by AGN and achieve their bent morphologies through interaction with the surrounding gas…