We present high angular resolution X-ray images and spectra from two Chandra ACIS-I observations of the X-ray jet in the nearby radio galaxy Centaurus A .
We find that the X-ray emission from the jet is composed of a low surface brightness diffuse component extending continuously from within at least 60 pc of the active nucleus into the NE radio lobe 4 kpc from the nucleus , along with 31 discrete compact knots , most of which are extended at the resolution of our observation .
We find that there are small but significant differences between the X-ray and radio morphologies of the inner jet at the arcsecond level , making it unlikely that a single , spatially coincident population of ultrarelativistic electrons is responsible for the emission in both energy regimes .
We suggest that the X-ray knots of the inner jet are indeed the sites of particle acceleration and shocks , and the X-ray and radio knot offsets are caused by a combination of particle diffusion and energy loss .
These offsets may be a common feature of all jets in radio galaxies , or at least jets in FR I type galaxies , and may be fundamental to the physics of such jets .
They are best observed in Cen A because the source is so close .
Even though the X-ray and radio knots are offset in position and there are variations of more than a factor of three in the ratio of X-ray to radio flux density in the inner jet , the radio to X-ray two-point spectral indices at the X-ray knots are not unusually flat , and are consistent with those observed in other X-ray jets seen in FR I galaxies such as M87 and 3C 66B .
We find the width of the jet in the X-ray bandpass to be narrower to that measured in the radio along its most of its length .
The X-ray spectra of several regions of the jet are well fit by absorbed power-law models with photon indices \sim 2.2-2.5 , although the spectrum of one bright knot located \sim 1 kpc from the nucleus ( knot B ) is harder ( photon index = 2.0 ) .