CHANDRA X-RAY IMAGING AND SPECTROSCOPY OF THE M87 JET AND NUCLEUS

We report X-ray imaging spectroscopy of the jet of M87 at subarcsecond resolution with the Chandra X-ray Observatory. The galaxy nucleus and all the knots seen at radio and optical wavelengths, as far from the nucleus as knot C, are detected in the X-ray observations. There is a strong trend for the ratio of X-ray-to-radio, or optical, flux to decline with increasing distance from the nucleus. At least three knots are displaced from their radio/optical counterparts, being tens of parsecs closer to the nucleus at X-ray than at radio or optical wavelengths. The X-ray spectra of the nucleus and knots are well described by power laws absorbed by cold gas, with only the unresolved nucleus exhibiting intrinsic absorption. In view of the similar spectra of the nucleus and jet knots, and the high X-ray flux of the knots closest to the nucleus, we suggest that the X-ray emission coincident with the nucleus may actually originate from the parsec- or subparsec-scale jet rather than the accretion disk. Arguments are given that the X-ray emission process is unlikely to be inverse Compton scattering. Instead, we favor synchrotron radiation. Plotted as νSν, the spectra of the knots generally peak in or just above the optical-near-infrared band. However, the overall spectra of at least three knots cannot be described by simple models in which the spectral index monotonically increases with frequency, as would result from synchrotron losses or a high-energy cut-off to the injected electron spectrum. Instead, these spectra must turn down just above the optical band and then flatten in the X-ray band. In the context of a synchrotron model, this result suggests that either the X-ray-emitting electrons/positrons in these knots represent a separate "population" from those that emit the radio and optical radiation or that the magnetic field is highly inhomogeneous. If the former interpretation is correct, our results provide further support for the notion that radio galaxies produce a hard [γ 2-2.5, N(E) ∝ E-γ] spectrum of high-energy [ ~ 107-108] electrons and possibly positrons.