All-Moscow Seminar of Astrophysicists
(ASA)
annotation of talk
Andrei Lobanov (MPIfR, Bonn, Germany))
Compact Extragalactic Jets.
Radiointerferometry has played a crucial part in the
studies of compact extragalactic jets during the last several
decades. Submilliarcsecond resolution of Very Long Baseline
Interferometry (VLBI) has enabled detailed studies of morphological,
kinematic and spectral properties of radioemission from the jets.
We will present a review of results from
several latest VLBI studies of extragalactic jets.
In particular, we will discuss the results from three novel techniques
of VLBI studies: space interferometry (Space VLBI), turnover frequency
mapping, and using opacity effects in the jetts for probing
the physical conidtions in the nuclear regions of AGN.
Application of these methods has helped to understad better the evolutionary
processes in the compact jets, in particularly the
relative importance of relativistic shocks and plasma instabilities for
the formation and development of relativistic flows on various
linear scales.