INTERNATIONAL SCHOOL OF NEUTRON STARS, AGN AND JETS

Neutron stars, active galactic nuclei, and (other) jet sources belong to the family of “non-thermal” sources. These are sources capable of generating power-law distributions of relativistic electrons, such as synchrotron families. There is a strong similarity between the following four classes of astrophysical jet sources: (1) radio sources centered on active galactic nuclei, (2) bipolar flows driven by young stellar objects, (3) young binary neutron stars with weak companions, and (4) young binary white dwarfs within planetary nebulae. Their similarities contrast with the very different interpretations proposed for some of them. For example, the black hole model prohibits large Lorentz factors for the plasmas of the escaping pairs. Meanwhile, the spectra, laterality, and superluminal expansions imply the possibility of acceleration in situ. Furthermore, stellar sources drive jets without hosting black holes. Other structural elements common to neutron stars and active galactic nuclei are their accretion disks; in particular, their probably tilted inner edges, clusters, and filamentary wind zones of their ejections, which give rise to optical spectra identical to those of supernovae and so-called large-line regions. The aim of the International School on Neutron Stars, Active Galactic Nuclei, and Jets is to examine the multitude of different observations and critically discuss their various interpretations.