VLBA monitoring of Mrk 421 at 15 GHz and 24 GHz during 2011

TL;DR

This study uses VLBA radio observations at 15 and 24 GHz over a year to analyze the inner jet structure of Mrk 421, revealing stationary components, flux variability, and differing Doppler factors for radio and high-energy regions.

Contribution

First detailed multi-epoch VLBA analysis of Mrk 421's jet structure at 15 and 24 GHz, providing insights into jet components and physical parameters.

Findings

Jet dominated by a compact bright component

Stationary jet components identified over 12 months

Different Doppler factors for radio and high-energy emission regions

Abstract

High-resolution radio observations are ideal for constraining the value of physical parameters in the inner regions of active-galactic-nucleus jets and complement results on multiwavelength (MWL) observations. This study is part of a wider multifrequency campaign targeting the nearby TeV blazar Markarian 421 (z=0.031), with observations in the sub-mm (SMA), optical/IR (GASP), UV/X-ray (Swift, RXTE, MAXI), and gamma rays (Fermi-LAT, MAGIC, VERITAS). We investigate the jet's morphology and any proper motions, and the time evolution of physical parameters such as flux densities and spectral index. The aim of our wider multifrequency campaign is to try to shed light on questions such as the nature of the radiating particles, the connection between the radio and gamma-ray emission, the location of the emitting regions and the origin of the flux variability. We consider data obtained with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) over twelve epochs (one observation per month from January to December 2011) at 15 GHz and 24 GHz. We investigate the inner jet structure on parsec scales through the study of model-fit components for each epoch. The structure of Mrk 421 is dominated by a compact (~0.13 mas) and bright component, with a one-sided jet detected out to ~10 mas. We identify 5-6 components in the jet that are consistent with being stationary during the 12-month period studied here. Measurements of the spectral index agree with those of other works: they are fairly flat in the core region and steepen along the jet length. Significant flux-density variations are detected for the core component. From our results, we draw an overall scenario in which we estimate a viewing angle 2{\deg} < theta < 5{\deg} and a different jet velocity for the radio and the high-energy emission regions, such that the respective Doppler factors are {\delta}r ~3 and {\delta}h.e. ~14.