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Paper: High-resolution Imaging of Radio Jets Launched by Active Galactic Nuclei: New Insights on Formation, Structure, and Evolution Enabled by the ngVLA
Monograph: 7, Science with a Next Generation Very Large Array
Page: 619
Authors: Lister, M. L.; Kellermann, K. I.; Kharb, P.
Abstract: Jetted plasma outflows from active galactic nuclei (AGN) represent the most energetic phenomena in the known universe, and play a key role in regulating galaxy formation through feedback processes (Harrison et al. 2018). The Jansky VLA and VLBA have played an indispensable role in understanding the physics of these powerful jets and their environments, via high angular resolution full polarization imaging and astrometric studies. By bridging the current interferometric gap between the VLA and VLBA with intermediate baselines, the ngVLA offers exciting new opportunities to explore the intermediate regions downstream of the high Lorentz factor pc-scale AGN jets imaged by VLBI, where entrainment, deceleration, collimation and particle acceleration all take place. The ability to image exceedingly faint radio emission on scales of 10s to 100s of milliarcseconds will lead to new breakthroughs in resolving some of the most pressing questions regarding the formation, structure, and evolution of AGN jets. These are in turn crucial for a more complete understanding of the formation of supermassive black holes and galaxies in the early universe and their subsequent evolution.
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