Clean Optical Spectrum of the Radio Jet of 3C 120

Sánchez, S. F.; Garcia-Lorenzo, B.; Mediavilla, E.;González-Serrano, J. I.; Christensen, L.. Clean Optical Spectrum of the Radio Jet of 3C 120. The Astrophysical Journal. 2004, Vol. Volume 615, Issue 1, pp. 156-160, p. -2004.

We present integral field spectroscopy (IFS) of the central region of 3C 120. We have modeled the nuclear and host galaxy three-dimensional spectra using techniques normally applied to imaging, decoupling both components and obtaining a residual data cube. Using this residual data cube, we detected the extended emission line region associated with the radio jet. We obtained, for the first time, a clean spectrum of this region and found compelling evidence of a jet-cloud interaction. The jet compresses and splits the gas cloud, which is ionized by the active galactic nucleus (AGN) and/or by the strong local UV photon field generated by a shock process. We cannot confirm the detection of an extended emission line region associated with the counterjet reported by Axon and coworkers.