We present new deep Chandra observations of the Centaurus A jet, with a combined on-source exposure time of 719 ks. These data allow detailed X-ray spectral measurements to be made along the jet out to its disappearance at 4.5 kpc from the nucleus. We distinguish several regimes of high-energy particle acceleration: while the inner part of the jet is dominated by knots and has properties consistent with local particle acceleration at shocks, the particle acceleration in the outer 3.4 kpc of the jet is likely to be dominated by an unknown distributed acceleration mechanism. In addition to several compact counterjet features we detect probable extended emission from a counterjet out to 2.0 kpc from the nucleus, and argue that this implies that the diffuse acceleration process operates in the counterjet as well. A preliminary search for X-ray variability finds no jet knots with dramatic flux density variations, unlike the situation seen in M87.

???The definitive version is available at www3.interscience.wiley.com '. Copyright Blackwell Publishing / Royal Astronomical Society. DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-2966.2009.14715.xWe present new results on the shock around the south-west radio lobe of Centaurus A using data from the Chandra Very Large Programme observations (740 ks total observing time). The X-ray spectrum of the emission around the outer south-western edge of the lobe is well described by a single power-law model with Galactic absorption ??? thermal models are strongly disfavoured, except in the region closest to the nucleus. We conclude that a significant fraction of the X-ray emission around the south-west part of the lobe is synchrotron, not thermal. We infer that in the region where the shock is strongest and the ambient gas density lowest, the inflation of the lobe is accelerating particles to X-ray synchrotron emitting energies, similar to supernova remnants such as SN1006. This interpretation resolves a problem of our earlier, purely thermal, interpretation for this emission, namely that the density compression across the shock was required to be much larger than the theoretically expected factor of 4. We describe a self-consistent model for the lobe dynamics and shock properties using the shell of thermal emission to the north of the lobe to estimate the lobe pressure. Based on this model, we estimate that the lobe is expanding to the south-west with a velocity of ???2600 km s???1 , roughly Mach 8 relative to the ambient medium. We discuss the spatial variation of spectral index across the shock region, concluding that our observations constrain ??max for the accelerated particles to be ???108 at the strongest part of the shock, consistent with expectations from diffusive shock acceleration theory. Finally, we consider the implications of these results for the production of ultra-high energy cosmic rays (UHECRs) and TeV emission from Centaurus A, concluding that the shock front region is unlikely to be a significant source of UHECRs, but that TeV emission from this region is expected at levels comparable to current limits at TeV energies, for plausible assumed magnetic field strengths

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Luminosity Functions have been obtained for very faint dwarf galaxies in the cores of four rich clusters of galaxies (Abell 2052, 2107, 2199 and 2666). It is found that the luminosity function of dwarf galaxies rises very steeply in these clusters, with a power-law slope of \alpha -2.2 (down to absolute limiting magnitudes M_I = -13 and M_B = -11 for H_0 = 75 km/s/Mpc). A steepening of the luminosity function at faint magnitudes may in fact be a common feature of both cluster and field populations. Such a result may explain the observed excess counts of faint, intermediate redshift galaxies in the Universe, without resorting to more exotic phenomena. An alternate explanation is that star formation in dwarf galaxies is less affected by gas loss in the richest clusters, because of the dense, hot intracluster medium found in such environments.Comment: 15 pages, 2 figures (attached). Uuencoded compressed Postscript tarfile. Accepted by the Astrophysical Journal

The overall problem of reducing photoelectric photometry data is reviewed, and a general reduction method that differs significantly from the traditional approach of Hardie and others is summarized and analyzed. The technique, essentially a multilinear solution for all the transformation model parameters simultaneously, is especially suitable for modern computing facilities, and is both faster and more reliable than older approaches. This particular technique is also shown to be sufficiently powerful and versatile that it gives the observer several important advantages and flexibilities at the telescope, and can be set up to apply to many general situations. Examples and comparisons of its use for single-and multiple-night reductions are presented, and the role of the reduction problem in the whole area of photoelectric photometry is discussed.