Jet evolution in Steep Spectrum Radio Quasars: a multiwavelength study

¹ Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica-IASFBO, Via Gobetti 101, I-40129 Bologna, Italy

^a e-mail: torresi@iasfbo.inaf.it

Published online: 9 December 2013

Abstract

Thanks to the Fermi γ-ray satellite, it is now confirmed that Misaligned Active Galactic Nuclei (MAGN), i.e. radio galaxies and steep spectrum radio quasars, are a new class of GeV emitters. In this work we present the first γ-ray and multiwavelength study of the two steep spectrum radio quasars, i.e. 3C 207 and 3C 380, belonging to the MAGN sample. From the γ -ray variability study we estimate the physical size of the zone where high-energy photons are dissipated: for both sources this region should be very compact, not larger than 0.05 pc. As a successive step, we build multiwavelength light curves of 3C 207 and 3C 380 to search for possible simultaneous outbursts in different wavebands with the aim of localizing the compact emitting region. This is an important issue with strong impact on theoretical models: indeed, knowing where highenergy photons are dissipated (at sub-pc or pc-scale) provides information on the nature of the seed photons involved in the production of the GeV radiation.