Abstract
It has long been a puzzle why high-luminosity extragalactic radio sources, which are symmetric in many respects, have jets on one side only1.The jets may be intrinsically asymmetric, because dissipation is stronger on one side or because they flip alternately between the two lobes they supply2, or the one-sidedness may be only apparent, the result of Doppler beaming in twin relativistic jets3. So far, attempts to distinguish observationally between these two possibilities have been inconclusive4. Following a suggestion by Laing5, we report here new observations which establish that almost invariably the jet side depolarizes less rapidly with increasing wavelength than the opposite side. If the jet one-sidedness is intrinsic, this depolarization most probably occurs internally, but if the one-sidedness is due to Doppler beaming the depolarization must occur in a foreground screen. Further detailed polarization observations, which can determine whether the depolarization in such sources is internal or external, should therefore settle whether jets are intrinsically or only apparently one-sided.
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Garrington, S., Leahy, J., Conway, R. et al. A systematic asymmetry in the polarization properties of double radio sources with one jet. Nature 331, 147–149 (1988). https://doi.org/10.1038/331147a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/331147a0
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