Terminology
- beamed, beaming
- shorter terms for ‘relativistic beaming’
- beta
- the ratio of the jet speed to the speed of light, sometimes called ‘relativistic beta’
- core
- region of a galaxy around the central black hole
- counter-jet
- the jet on the far side of a source oriented close to the line of sight, can be very faint and difficult to observe
- Doppler factor
- a mathematical expression which measures the strength (or weakness) of relativistic effects in AGN, including beaming, based on the jet speed and its angle to the line of sight with Earth
- flat spectrum
- a term for a non-thermal spectrum that emits a great deal of energy at the higher frequencies when compared to the lower frequencies
- intrinsic luminosity
- the luminosity from the jet in the rest frame of the jet
- jet
- a relativistic jet of plasma emanating from the polar direction of an AGN
- observed luminosity
- the luminosity from the jet in the rest frame of Earth
- spectral index
- of measure of how a non-thermal spectrum changes with frequency, the smaller α is the more significant is the energy at higher frequencies, typically α is in the range of 0 to 2
- steep spectrum
- a term for a non-thermal spectrum that emits little energy at the higher frequencies when compared to the lower frequencies
Read more about this topic: Relativistic Beaming