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arxiv: astro-ph/9809220 · v1 · submitted 1998-09-16 · 🌌 astro-ph

Space VLBI Observations Show T_b > 10¹² K in the Quasar NRAO 530

classification 🌌 astro-ph
keywords brightnessnraotemperatureboostingdopplerlimitmodelobservations
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We present here space-based VLBI observations with VSOP and a southern hemisphere ground array of the gamma-ray blazar NRAO 530 at 1.6 GHz and 5 GHz. The brightness temperature of the core at 1.6 GHz is $5 \times 10^{11}$ K. The size is near the minimum observable value in the direction of NRAO~530 due to interstellar scattering. The 5 GHz data show a single component with a brightness temperature of $\sim 3 \times 10^{12}$ K, significantly in excess of the inverse Compton limit and of the equipartition brightness temperature limit (Readhead 1994). This is strong evidence for relativistic motion in a jet requiring model-dependent Doppler boosting factors in the range 6 to 60. We show that a simple homogeneous sphere probably does not model the emission region accurately. We favor instead an inhomogeneous jet model with a Doppler boosting factor of 15.

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