A dataset provided by the European Space Agency

Proposal ID 0320060
Obs ID 03200600001
Title Positrons in AGN Jets: Search for Annihilation Line Radiation
Download Data Associated to the proposal https://isla.esac.esa.int/tap/download/bundle?format=ascii_curl&product_id=prop_id:0320060
DOI https://doi.org/10.57780/esa-5cznxbv
Author Marscher
Abstract One of the greatest controversies in the physics of AGN jets is whether the plasma is mainly composed of normal matter or e+/e- pairs. The investigators will address this question directly by observing the Seyfert-like radio galaxies 3C 120 and 3C 84 with the Integral SPI instrument, each for 500 ks, in an attempt to detectthe redshifted 511 keV e+/e- annihilation line. If the jet, which interacts strongly with the thermal medium in each galaxy, is mainly composed of a pair plasma, the positrons entering the medium will thermalize and annihilate. The emission line resulting from the annihilations should be quite narrow, < 4 keV. The line can be detected by INTEGRAL unless the positron-to-proton ratio in the jet is less than 0.25 in 3C 120 and 0.04 in 3C 84.
Publications
Temporal Coverage 2005-08-04T20:43:15Z / 2005-08-14T20:14:07Z
Version 1.0
Mission Description The INTEGRAL (International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory) mission, launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) on October 17, 2002, was designed to study high-energy phenomena in the universe. INTEGRAL was operating until february 2025 and it was equipped with three high-energy instruments: the Imager on Board the INTEGRAL Satellite (IBIS), the Spectrometer on INTEGRAL (SPI), and the JEM-X (Joint European Monitor for X-rays). Its Optical Monitoring Camera (OMC) provided optical V-band magnitude measurements, complementing the high-energy observations.
Creator Contact https://www.cosmos.esa.int/web/integral/helpdesk
Date Published 2026-03-05T13:05:54Z
Keywords INTEGRAL gamma-ray data, ESA INTEGRAL mission dataset, gamma-ray astronomy observations, high-energy astrophysics data, IBIS imaging data, SPI spectrometer data, JEM-X X-ray monitoring data, OMC optical monitoring data, coded mask telescope observations, gamma-ray spectroscopy dataset, MeV astrophysics data, keV–MeV photon observations, gamma-ray burst observations dataset, black hole gamma-ray data, neutron star high-energy observations, positron annihilation 511 keV line data, Galactic Center gamma-ray emission dataset, supernova nucleosynthesis gamma-ray lines, active galactic nuclei high-energy data, transient astrophysical source monitoring, calibrated photon event lists, gamma-ray light curves, high-energy spectra data, sky maps gamma-ray, time-series astrophysical observations, long-term gamma-ray monitoring dataset
Publisher And Registrant European Space Agency
Credit Guidelines European Space Agency, Marscher, 2026, 'Positrons in AGN Jets: Search for Annihilation Line Radiation', 1.0, European Space Agency, https://doi.org/10.57780/esa-5cznxbv