  We report detailed studies of the X-ray emission from the kpc scale jet in
the nearest active galaxy, Cen A. 41 compact sources were found within the jet,
13 of which were newly identified. We construct the luminosity function for the
detected jet-knots and argue that the remaining emission is most likely to be
truly diffuse, rather than resulting from the pile-up of unresolved faint
knots. The transverse jet profile reveals that the extended emission has the
intensity peak at the jet boundaries. We note that limb-brightened jet
morphologies have been observed previously at radio frequencies in some jet
sources, but never so clearly at higher photon energies. Our result therefore
supports a stratified jet model, consisting of a relativistic outflow including
a boundary layer with a velocity shear. In addition, we found that the X-ray
spectrum of the diffuse component is almost uniform across and along the jet.
We discuss this spectral behavior within a framework of shock and stochastic
particle acceleration processes. We note some evidence for a possible spectral
hardening at the outer sheath of the jet. Due to the limited photon statistics
of the present data, further deep observations of Cen A are required to
determine the reality of this finding, however we note that the existence of
the hard X-ray features at outer jet boundaries would provide an important
challenge to theories for the evolution of ultra-relativistic particles within
the jets.
