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Paper: Limiting Brightness Temperature for Synchrotron Sources
Volume: 144, Radio Emission from Galactic and Extragalactic Compact Sources, IAU Colloquium 164
Page: 135
Authors: Laehteenmaeki, A.; Valtaoja, E.
Abstract: The maximum brightness temperature limit for synchrotron sources derived from inverse Compton catastrophe is usually taken to be 1012 K. Readhead has argued in 1994 that the equipartition brightness temperature may be a better estimate for T_{b,lim}. It provides a value of 5 x 1010 K. We suggest that a reasonable estimate of the value of T_{b,lim} can also be achieved by comparing Doppler boosting factors from total flux density variations at 22 and 37 GHz with traditional Doppler factors from the SSC X-ray flux. We also compare our variability brightness temperatures with values calculated for individual sources observed with VLBI, obtaining other independent estimates of T_{b,lim}.
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