A ring accelerator? Unusual jet dynamics in the IceCube candidate PKS 1502+106

TL;DR

This study investigates unusual jet dynamics in the blazar PKS 1502+106, linking radio ring structures and jet precession to neutrino production, gamma-ray emission, and interactions with outflowing material, providing insights into high-energy astrophysical processes.

Contribution

It presents evidence of a precessing jet interacting with outflowing material, revealing a ring structure and connecting multi-wavelength emissions to neutrino production in a blazar.

Findings

Radio ring structure develops over time and is linked to jet precession.

Gamma-ray emission correlates with radio, with lag indicating emission zones.

Neutrino likely produced by proton-proton interactions beyond the BLR.

Abstract

On 2019/07/30.86853 UT, IceCube detected a high-energy astrophysical neutrino candidate. The Flat Spectrum Radio Quasar PKS 1502+106 is located within the 50 percent uncertainty region of the event. Our analysis of 15 GHz Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) and astrometric 8 GHz VLBA data, in a time span prior and after the IceCube event, reveals evidence for a radio ring structure which develops with time. Several arc-structures evolve perpendicular to the jet ridge line. We find evidence for precession of a curved jet based on kinematic modelling and a periodicity analysis. An outflowing broad line region (BLR) based on the C IV line emission (Sloan Digital Sky Survey, SDSS) is found. We attribute the atypical ring to an interaction of the precessing jet with the outflowing material. We discuss our findings in the context of a spine-sheath scenario where the ring reveals the sheath and its interaction with the surroundings (narrow line region, NLR, clouds). We find that the radio emission is correlated with the $\gamma$-ray emission, with radio lagging the $\gamma$-rays. Based on the $\gamma$-ray variability timescale, we constrain the $\gamma$-ray emission zone to the BLR (30-200 $r_{\rm g}$) and within the jet launching region. We discuss that the outflowing BLR provides the external radiation field for $\gamma$-ray production via external Compton scattering. The neutrino is most likely produced by proton-proton interaction in the blazar zone (beyond the BLR), enabled by episodic encounters of the jet with dense clouds, i.e. some molecular cloud in the NLR.