CHANDRA X-RAY OBSERVATIONS OF THE REDSHIFT 1.53 RADIO-LOUD QUASAR 3C 270.1

Chandra X-ray observations of the high redshift (z = 1.532) radio-loud quasar 3C 270.1 in 2008 February show the nucleus to have a power-law spectrum, Gamma = 1.66 +/- 0.08, typical of a radio-loud quasar, and a marginally detected Fe K alpha emission line. The data also reveal extended X-ray emission, about half of which is associated with the radio emission from this source. The southern emission is co-spatial with the radio lobe and peaks at the position of the double radio hot spot. Modeling this hot spot, including Spitzer upper limits, rules out synchrotron emission from a single power-law population of electrons, favoring inverse Compton emission with a field of similar to 11 nT, roughly a third of the equipartition value. The northern emission is concentrated close to the location of a 40 degrees bend where the radio jet is presumed to encounter an external medium. It can be explained by inverse Compton emission involving cosmic microwave background photons with a field of similar to 3 nT, a factor of 7-10 below the equipartition value. The remaining, more diffuse X-ray emission is harder (HR = -0.09 +/- 0.22). With only 22.8 +/- 5.6 counts, the spectral form cannot be constrained. Assuming thermal emission with a temperature of 4 keV yields an estimate for the luminosity of 1.8 x 10(44) erg s(-1), consistent with the luminosity-temperature relation of lower-redshift clusters. However, deeper Chandra X-ray observations are required to delineate the spatial distribution and better constrain the spectrum of the diffuse emission to verify that we have detected X-ray emission from a high-redshift cluster.