Luminosity Evolution of Double Radio Sources

Abstract

We have recently developed a detailed analytical model for powerful radio sources based on the results of a series of 2-D numerical hydrodynamical simulations. Here we make use of the model results to investigate the radio source luminosity evolution. Changes in the radio spectrum due to radiation losses were calculated in two different scenarios for energy gains/losses: Kardashev–h;Pacholczyk (KP) and ‘continuous injection’ (CI). The magnetic field was calculated in two limiting cases: (1) assuming equipartition of energy between relativistic particles and fields and (2) magnetic flux conservation inside the cocoon. The effect of the surrounding medium was taken into account by considering three different ambient density profiles. The evolutionary tracks were plotted in a power–diameter (P-D) diagram and compared with the predictions of self-similar models. In general, the evolutionary tracks cannot be represented by a simple power law and have a complex form that is most probably the result of the nonself-similar evolution of the source.