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Optical Emission and Particle Acceleration in a Quasi-stationary Component in the Jet of OJ 287

Authors :
Valeri M. Larionov
Ivan Agudo
Mahito Sasada
Ivan S. Troitsky
Nicholas R. MacDonald
Manasvita Joshi
Daria A. Morozova
Ryosuke Itoh
Alan P. Marscher
Svetlana G. Jorstad
Carolina Casadio
Michael P. Malmrose
José L. Gómez
Sol N. Molina
Vishal Bala
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (Japan)
National Science Foundation (US)
National Aeronautics and Space Administration (US)
Russian Science Foundation
Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (España)
European Commission
Source :
Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC, instname
Publication Year :
2018
Publisher :
American Astronomical Society, 2018.

Abstract

We analyze the linear polarization of the relativistic jet in BL Lacertae object OJ 287 as revealed by multi-epoch Very Long Baseline Array images at 43 GHz and monitoring observations at optical bands. The electric-vector position angle of the optical polarization matches that at 43 GHz at locations that are often in the compact millimeter-wave >core> or, at other epochs, coincident with a bright, quasi-stationary emission feature ∼0.2 mas (∼0.9 pc projected on the sky) downstream from the core. This implies that electrons with high enough energies to emit optical synchrotron and γ-ray inverse Compton radiation are accelerated both in the core and at the downstream feature, the latter of which lies ≥10 pc from the central engine. The polarization vector in the stationary feature is nearly parallel to the jet axis, as expected for a conical standing shock capable of accelerating electrons to GeV energies.© 2018. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..<br />The authors thank Dr. Ioannis Myserlis for a critical review of a draft of this manuscript. The authors acknowledge financial support by MEXT/JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research on Innovative Areas (No. 25120007). M.S. was supported during this study by a JSPS Postdoctoral Fellowship for Research Abroad. The research at Boston University was supported in part by National Science Foundation grant AST-1615796 and NASA Fermi Guest Investigator Program grants NNX14AQ58G and 80NSSC17K0649. The St. Petersburg University team acknowledges support from Russian Science Foundation grant 17-12-01029. I.A. acknowledges support by a Ramon y Cajal grant of the Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (MINECO) of Spain. The research at the IAA-CSIC was supported in part by the MINECO through grants AYA2016-80889-P, AYA2013-40825-P, and AYA2010-14844; and by the regional government of Andalucia through grant P09-FQM-4784. Calar Alto Observatory is jointly operated by the Max-Planck-Institut fur Astronomie and the IAA-CSIC. The VLBA is an instrument of the Long Baseline Observatory (LBO). The LBO is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. Data from the Steward Observatory spectro-polarimetric monitoring project were used. This program was supported by Fermi Guest Investigator grants NNX08AW56G, NNX09AU10G, NNX12AO93G, and NNX15AU81G.

Details

ISSN :
15384357
Volume :
864
Database :
OpenAIRE
Journal :
The Astrophysical Journal
Accession number :
edsair.doi.dedup.....1d95ed23ca38f4a3044181a42d925803
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-4357/aad553