2012ApJ...754....1K

We present here the results from new Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations at 1.6 and 5 GHz of 19 galaxies of a complete sample of 21 Uppasala General Catalog (UGC) Fanaroff-Riley type I (FRI) radio galaxies. New Chandra data of two sources, viz., UGC 00408 and UGC 08433, are combined with the Chandra archival data of 13 sources. The 5 GHz observations of 10 "core-jet" sources are polarization-sensitive, while the 1.6 GHz observations constitute second-epoch total intensity observations of nine "core-only" sources. Polarized emission is detected in the jets of seven sources at 5 GHz, but the cores are essentially unpolarized, except in M87. Polarization is detected at the jet edges in several sources, and the inferred magnetic field is primarily aligned with the jet direction. This could be indicative of magnetic field "shearing" due to jet-medium interaction, or the presence of helical magnetic fields. The jet peak intensity I_ν falls with distance d from the core, following the relation, I_ν∝d^a, where a is typically ∼ - 1.5. Assuming that adiabatic expansion losses are primarily responsible for the jet intensity "dimming," two limiting cases are considered: (1) the jet has a constant speed on parsec scales and is expanding gradually such that the jet radius r∝d ^0.4; this expansion is, however, unobservable in the laterally unresolved jets at 5 GHz, and (2) the jet is cylindrical and is accelerating on parsec scales. Accelerating parsec-scale jets are consistent with the phenomenon of "magnetic driving" in Poynting-flux-dominated jets. While slow jet expansion as predicted by case (1) is indeed observed in a few sources from the literature that are resolved laterally, on scales of tens or hundreds of parsecs, case (2) cannot be ruled out in the present data, provided the jets become conical on scales larger than those probed by VLBA. Chandra observations of 15 UGC FRIs detect X-ray jets in 9 of them. The high frequency of occurrence of X-ray jets in this complete sample suggests that they are a signature of a ubiquitous process in FRI jets. It appears that the FRI jets start out relativistically on parsec scales but decelerate on kiloparsec scales, with the X-ray emission revealing the sites of bulk deceleration and particle reacceleration.