Blazars are a sub-class of quasars with Doppler boosted jets oriented close to the line of sight, and thus efficient probes of supermassive black hole growth and their environment, especially at high redshifts. Here we report on Very Long Baseline Interferometry observations of a blazar J0906+6930 at z = 5.47, which enabled the detection of polarised emission and measurement of jet proper motion at parsec scales. The observations suggest a less powerful jet compared with the general blazar population, including lower proper motion and bulk Lorentz factor. This coupled with a previously inferred high accretion rate indicate a transition from an accretion radiative power to a jet mechanical power based transfer of energy and momentum to the surrounding gas.While alternative scenarios could not be fully ruled out, our results indicate a possibly nascent jet embedded in and interacting with a dense medium resulting in a jet bending.
The spatially resolved broad-band spectroscopy with Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) is one of the few methods that can probe the physical conditions inside blazar jets. We report on measurements of the magnetic field strength in parsec-scale radio structures of selected bright Fermi blazars, based on fitting the synchrotron spectrum to VLBA images made at seven frequencies in a 4.6 -- 43.2 GHz range. Upper limits of B <= 10^-2 -- 10^2 G (observer's frame) could be placed on the magnetic field strength in 13 sources. Hard radio spectra (-0.5 <= a <= +0.1, S_nu ~ nu^a) observed above th…
I show that by assuming a standard Blandford-Konigl jet, it is possible to determine the bulk Lorentz factor and angle to the line of sight of self-similar parsec-scale blazar jets by using five measured quantities: redshift, core radio flux, extended radio flux, the magnitude of the core shift between two frequencies, and apparent jet opening angle. From the bulk Lorentz factor and angle computed with this method, one can compute other jet properties such as the Doppler factor, magnetic field strength, and intrinsic jet opening angle. I use data taken from the literature and marginalize over …
We analyze the parsec-scale jet kinematics from 2007 June to 2018 December of a sample of $γ$-ray bright blazars monitored roughly monthly with the Very Long Baseline Array at 43 GHz under the VLBA-BU-BLAZAR program. We implement a novel piece-wise linear fitting method to derive the kinematics of 521 distinct emission knots from a total of 3705 total intensity images in 22 quasars, 13 BL Lacertae objects, and 3 radio galaxies. Apparent speeds of these components range from $0.01c$ to $78c$, and 18.6\% of knots (other than the "core") are quasi-stationary. One-fifth of moving knots exhibit non…
Recently the IceCube collaboration detected very high energy (VHE) neutrinos and associated them with the blazar \txs{}, raising a possible association of VHE neutrinos with this and other individual blazars. Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) is so far the only technique enabling the imaging of the innermost jet at milli-arcsec resolution (parsec scale), where the high energy emission possibly originates from. Here, we report on the radio properties of the parsec scale jet in \txs{} derived from the analysis of multi-epoch multi-frequency archive VLBI data. The half opening angle of the…
We present the observational results of the Gamma-ray blazar, 3C 66A, at 2.3, 8.4, and 22 GHz at 4 epochs during 2004-05 with the VLBA. The resulting images show an overall core-jet structure extending roughly to the south with two intermediate breaks occurring in the region near the core. By model-fitting to the visibility data, the northmost component, which is also the brightest, is identified as the core according to its relatively flat spectrum and its compactness. As combined with some previous results to investigate the proper motions of the jet components, it is found the kinematics of…
We analyze the parsec-scale jet kinematics from 2007 June to 2013 January of a sample of $γ$-ray bright blazars monitored roughly monthly with the Very Long Baseline Array at 43~GHz. In a total of 1929 images, we measure apparent speeds of 252 emission knots in 21 quasars, 12 BL~Lacertae objects (BLLacs), and 3 radio galaxies, ranging from 0.02$c$ to 78$c$; 21\% of the knots are quasi-stationary. Approximately 1/3 of the moving knots execute non-ballistic motions, with the quasars exhibiting acceleration along the jet within 5~pc (projected) of the core, and knots in the BLLacs tending to dece…
We report on the acceleration properties of 329 features in 95 blazar jets from the MOJAVE VLBA program. Nearly half the features and three-quarters of the jets show significant changes in speed and/or direction. In general, apparent speed changes are distinctly larger than changes in direction, indicating that changes in the Lorentz factors of jet features dominate the observed speed changes rather than bends along the line of sight. Observed accelerations tend to increase the speed of features near the jet base, $\lesssim 10-20$ parsecs projected, and decrease their speed at longer distances…
Context. Many questions on the nature of astrophysical counterparts of high-energy neutrinos remain unanswered. There is increasing evidence of a connection between blazar jets and neutrino events, with the flare of the gamma-ray blazar TXS0506+056 in spatial and temporal proximity of IC170922A representing one of the most outstanding associations of high-energy neutrinos with astrophysical sources reported so far. Aims. With the purpose of characterising potential blazar counterparts to high-energy neutrinos, we analysed the parsec-scale regions of gamma-ray blazars in spatial coincidence wit…
The high redshift GPS quasar PKS 0858-279 exhibits the following properties which make the source unusual. Our RATAN-600 monitoring of 1-22 GHz spectrum has detected broad-band radio variability with high amplitude and relatively short time scale. In the same time, the milliarcsecond scale structure observed in a snapshot VLBA survey turned out to be very resolved which is not expected from the fast flux density variations. We performed 1.4-22 GHz VLBA observations of this quasar in 2005-2007. It has revealed a core-jet morphology. A high Doppler factor delta is suggested for the jet, its natu…
The University of Michigan 26-m paraboloid was dedicated to obtaining linear polarization and total flux density observations of blazars from the mid-1960s until June 2012 providing an unprecedented record tracking centimeter-band variability over decades at 14.5, 8.0, and 4.8 GHz for both targeted objects and members of flux-limited samples. In the mid-1970s through the mid-1980s, and during the last decade of the program, observations were additionally obtained of circular polarization for a small sample of radio-bright (S>5Jy), active sources. Key program results include evidence supporting…
PG 1553+113 is the first blazar showing an approximately two-year quasi-periodic pattern in its gamma-ray light curve. Such quasi-periodicity might have a geometrical origin, possibly related to the precessing nature of the jet, or could be intrinsic to the source and related to pulsational accretion flow instabilities. By means of a ~2yr very long baseline array (VLBA) monitoring at 15, 24, and 43 GHz we investigate the source pc-scale properties during an entire cycle of gamma-ray activity in the period 2015-2017. In contrast to the well-defined periodicity in the gamma-ray emission, at radi…
We present a comprehensive 5-43 GHz VLBA study of the blazar 3C 273 initiated after an onset of a strong $γ$-ray flare in this source. We have analyzed the kinematics of new-born components, light curves, and position of the apparent core to pinpoint the location of the $γ$-ray emission. Estimated location of the $γ$-ray emission zone is close to the jet apex, 2 pc to 7 pc upstream from the observed 7 mm core. This is supported by ejection of a new component. The apparent core position was found to be inversely proportional to frequency. The brightness temperature in the 7 mm core reached valu…
Single-zone synchrotron self-Compton and external Compton models are widely used to explain broad-band Spectral Energy Distributions (SEDs) of blazars from infrared to gamma-rays. These models bear obvious similarities to the homogeneous synchrotron cloud model which is often applied to explain radio emission from individual components of parsec-scale radio jets. The parsec-scale core, typically the brightest and most compact feature of blazar radio jet, could be the source of high-energy emission. We report on ongoing work to test this hypothesis by deriving the physical properties of parsec-…
Our recently reported lack of Intra-Night Optical Variability (INOV) among Broad-Absorption-Line (BAL) quasars exhibiting some blazar-like radio properties, either questions polar ejection of BAL clouds, and/or hints at a physical state of the relativistic jet modified due to interaction with the thermal BAL wind on the innermost sub-parsec scale. As a robust check on this unexpected finding for the BAL_blazar candidates, we report here the INOV study of a new and much more rigorously defined comparison sample consisting of 9 normal (non-BAL) blazars, matched in both magnitude and redshift to …
The physical nature of the mechanism responsible for the emission of neutrinos in active galactic nuclei (AGN) has been matter of debate in the literature, with relativistic jets of radio-loud AGNs as possible candidates to be the sources of high energy neutrinos. The most prominent candidate so far is the blazar TXS 0506+056, which is found to be associated with the neutrino event IceCube-170922A. Furthermore, the IceCube reported an excess of neutrinos towards TXS 0506+056 between September 2014 and March 2015, even though this association needs additional investigation, considering the pres…
Recently we have shown that high-energy neutrinos above 200 TeV detected by IceCube are produced within several parsecs in the central regions of radio-bright blazars, that is active galactic nuclei with jets pointing towards us. To independently test this result and extend the analysis to a wider energy range, we use public data for all neutrino energies from seven years of IceCube observations. The IceCube point-source likelihood map is analyzed against the positions of blazars from a statistically complete sample selected by their compact radio flux density. The latter analysis delivers a 3…
In February 2017 the blazar OJ287, one of the best super-massive binary-black-hole-system candidates, was detected for the first time at very high energies (VHEs; E>100GeV) with the ground-based gamma-ray observatory VERITAS. Very high energy gamma rays are thought to be produced in the near vicinity of the central engine in active galactic nuclei. For this reason, and with the main goal of providing useful information for the characterization of the physical mechanisms connected with the observed teraelectronvolt flaring event, we investigate the parsec-scale source properties by means of hig…
Using JVLA data of Sgr A* and NRAO 530 (as a calibrator) at 5.5, 9 and 33 GHz, we developed a procedure for the reduction of wideband data. We have demonstrated that, correcting for residual interferometer errors such as residual delays, astronomers can now achieve high-fidelity radio images with a dynamic range exceeding 1,000,000:1. We outline the detailed procedure, noting that it can have broad application to the analysis of broadband continuum observations. We apply this procedure to observations of a distant blazar, NRAO 530, revealing its structures in unprecedented detail. Our 5.5-GHz …
High-energy astrophysical neutrinos have been observed by several telescopes in the last decade, but their sources still remained unknown. We address the problem of locating astrophysical neutrinos' sources in a statistical manner. We show that blazars positionally associated with IceCube neutrino detections have stronger parsec-scale radio cores than the rest of the sample. The probability of a chance coincidence is only 4*10^-5 corresponding to a significance of 4.1 sigma. We explicitly list four strong radio blazars as highly probable sources of neutrinos above 200 TeV: 3C 279, NRAO 530, PK…
GB 1508+5714 is a high-redshift blazar ($z$ = 4.3) and a spectrally soft $γ$-ray source has been detected in its direction. By analyzing 11.4-yr {\it Fermi}-LAT data, significant long-term variability of the $γ$-ray source is confirmed. More importantly, a $γ$-ray emission flare appeared in an epoch of several tens of days in year 2018, when the flux is about four times of the value from the global fit. Meanwhile, optical flares displayed in both $r$- and $i$-bands from the {\it Zwicky} Transient Facility light curves. Detections of the simultaneous $γ$-ray and optical brightening provide a de…
We present Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) images of 20 TeV blazars (HBLs) not previously well-studied on the parsec scale. Observations were made between August and December 2013, at a frequency of 8.4 GHz. These observations represent the first epoch of a VLBA monitoring campaign on these blazars, and they significantly increase the fraction of TeV HBLs studied with high-resolution imaging. The peak VLBI flux densities of these sources range from about 10 to 100 mJy/beam, and parsec-scale jet structure is detected in all sources. About half of the VLBI cores are resolved, with brightness tem…
Multi-epoch VLBI observations of the blazar 3C 66A: Spatial twisting and temporal oscillation of the parsec-scale jet
Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute（韩国天文与空间科学研究所）；LUX, Observatoire de Paris, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université（巴黎天文台，PSL大学，法国国家科学研究中心，索邦大学）；Department of Astronomy & Center for Galaxy Evolution Research, Yonsei University（延世大学天文学系与星系演化研究中心）；Max-Planck Institut für Radioastronomie（马克斯·普朗克射电天文研究所）；Korea National University of Science and Technology（韩国科学技术院）
We present new multi-epoch Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations of a set of TeV blazars drawn from our VLBA program to monitor all TeV-detected high-frequency peaked BL Lac objects (HBLs) at parsec scales. Most of these sources are faint in the radio, so they have not been well observed with VLBI by other surveys. Our previous measurements of apparent jet speeds in TeV HBLs showed apparent jet speeds that were subluminal or barely superluminal, suggesting jets with velocity structures at the parsec-scale. Here we present apparent jet speed measurements for eight new TeV HBLs, which for…
The object 4C 71.07 is a high-redshift blazar whose spectral energy distribution shows a prominent big blue bump and a strong Compton dominance. We present the results of a two-year multiwavelength campaign led by the Whole Earth Blazar Telescope (WEBT) to study both the quasar core and the beamed jet of this source. The WEBT data are complemented by ultraviolet and X-ray data from Swift, and by gamma-ray data by Fermi. The big blue bump is modelled by using optical and near-infrared mean spectra obtained during the campaign, together with optical and ultraviolet quasar templates. We give pres…
The quasar 3C~286 is one of two compact steep spectrum sources detected by the {\it Fermi}/LAT. Here, we investigate the radio properties of the parsec(pc)-scale jet and its (possible) association with the $γ$-ray emission in 3C~286. The Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) images at various frequencies reveal a one-sided core--jet structure extending to the southwest at a projected distance of $\sim$1 kpc. The component at the jet base showing an inverted spectrum is identified as the core, with a mean brightness temperature of $2.8\times 10^{9}$~K. The jet bends at about 600 pc (in proje…
Galaxies are believed to evolve through merging, which should lead to multiple supermassive black holes in some. There are four known triple black hole systems, with the closest pair being 2.4 kiloparsecs apart (the third component is more distant at 3 kiloparsecs), which is far from the gravitational sphere of influence of a black hole with mass $\sim$10$^9$ M$_\odot$ (about 100 parsecs). Previous searches for compact black hole systems concluded that they were rare, with the tightest binary system having a separation of 7 parsecs. Here we report observations of a triple black hole system at …
BL Lac objects emitting in the Very High Energy (VHE) regime are unique tools to peer into the properties of the Extragalactic Background Light (EBL). However, due to the typical absence of features in their spectra, the determination of their redshifts has proven challenging. In this work we exploit the superb spatial resolution delivered by the new Advanced Rayleigh guided Ground layer adaptive Optics System (ARGOS) at the Large Binocular Telescope to detect the host galaxy of HESS J1943+213, a VHE emitting BL Lac shining through the Galaxy. Deep H-band imaging collected during the ARGOS com…
Two dozens of radio loud active galactic nuclei (AGNs) have been observed with Urumqi 25 m radio telescope in order to search for intra-day variability (IDV). The target sources are blazars (namely flat spectrum radio quasars and BL Lac objects) which are mostly selected from the observing list of RadioAstron AGN monitoring campaigns. The observations were carried out at 4.8 GHz in two sessions of 8-12 February 2014 and 7-9 March respectively. We report the data reduction and the first results of observations. The results show that the majority of the blazars exhibit IDV in 99.9% confidence le…
Blazars are active galactic nuclei (AGN) whose relativistic jets point nearly to the line of sight. Their compact radio structure can be imaged with very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) on parsec scales. Blazars at extremely high redshifts provide a unique insight into the AGN phenomena in the early Universe. We observed four radio sources at redshift $z>4$ with the European VLBI Network (EVN) at 1.7 and 5 GHz. These objects were previously classified as blazar candidates based on X-ray observations. One of them, J2134$-$0419 is firmly confirmed as a blazar with our VLBI observations, due …
We present results from our radio polarimetric study with the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) at Band 4 (550-850 MHz) of 3 blazars: radio-loud quasars 3C390.3, 4C71.07 and BL Lac object 1ES 2344+514. The aim of this study was (i) to carry out a feasibility study for Band 4 polarization with the uGMRT, and (ii) to compare and contrast the kpc-scale polarization properties between the blazar sub-classes. We have detected linear polarization in all the three sources. The degree of linear polarization in the cores of the two quasars is higher than in the BL Lac object, consistent …
Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy（马克斯·普朗克射电天文研究所）；Department of Astronomy, University of Michigan（密歇根大学天文学系）；Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences（俄罗斯科学院特别天文台）；Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC（安达卢西亚天体物理学研究所-CSIC）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, Denison University（丹尼森大学物理与天文学系）；Institute for Nuclear Research（核物理研究所）；Lebedev Physical Institute（列别杰夫物理研究所）；Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University（普渡大学物理与天文学系）；CePIA, Astronomy Department, Universidad de Concepción（孔塞普西翁大学天文学系CePIA）；Black Hole Initiative, Harvard University（哈佛大学黑洞倡议）；Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology（莫斯科物理技术学院）
We present 88 multi-epoch Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) images (most at an observing frequency of 8 GHz), of 20 TeV blazars, all of the HBL class, that have not been previously studied at multiple epochs on the parsec scale. From these 20 sources, we analyze the apparent speeds of 43 jet components that are all detected at four or more epochs. As has been found for other TeV HBLs, the apparent speeds of these components are relatively slow. About two-thirds of the components have an apparent speed that is consistent (within two-sigma) with no motion; and some of these components may be stati…
We observed the gravitationally lensed blazar JVAS B0218+357 with the KVN and VERA Array (KaVA) at 22, 43, and 86 GHz. The source has recently been identified as an active gamma-ray source up to GeV/TeV energy bands, rendering a unique target for studying relativistic jets through gravitational lensing. Here we report the first robust VLBI detection and imaging of the lensed images up to 86 GHz. The detected mas-scale/parsec-scale morphology of the individual lensed images (A and B) is consistent with that previously seen at 22 and 15 GHz, showing the core-jet morphology with the jet direction…
We investigate the previously proposed possibility that multi-epoch broadband polarimetry could act as a complement or limited proxy for VLBI observations of blazars, in that the number of polarised emission components in the jet, and some of their properties and those of the foreground environment, might be inferred from the object's time-varying 1D Faraday depth spectrum (FDS) alone. We report on a pilot-scale experiment designed to establish the basic plausibility and utility of this idea. We analyse temporal changes in the complex polarisation spectra of nine spatially unresolved (at arcse…
High-redshift blazars are among the most powerful objects in the Universe. The spectral and temporal properties of thirty-three distant blazars ($z>2.5$) detected in the high energy $γ$-ray band are investigated by analyzing the {\it Fermi}-LAT and {\it Swift} UVOT/ XRT data. The considered sources have soft time averaged $γ$-ray spectra ($Γ_{\rm γ}\geq2.2$) whereas those that have been observed in the X-ray band have hard X-ray spectra ($Γ_{\rm X}=1.01-1.86$). The $γ$-ray flux of high-redshift blazars ranges from $4.84\times10^{-10}$ to $1.50\times10^{-7}\:{\rm photon\:cm^{-2}\:s^{-1}}$ and t…
The first measurements from the CIBER experiment of extragalactic background light (EBL) in near-infrared (NIR) band exhibit a higher intensity than those inferred through $γ$-ray observations. Recent theoretical-EBL intensities are typically consistent with the very high energy (VHE) $γ$-ray observations. Yet, it is possible that the excess NIR radiation is a new component of EBL and not in tension with the TeV spectra of distant blazars, since the hypothetical axion-like particle (ALP) may lead to a reduced opacity of the Universe for VHE $γ$-rays. In order to probe whether the excess compon…
