Exploring the Magnetic Field Configuration in BL Lac Using GMVA

Galaxies

Alan Marscher¹  Svetlana Jorstad¹  Jeff A. Hodgson²  Thomas Krichbaum³  Anton J. Zensus³  Shoko Koyama³  Lars Fuhramnn³  Bindu Rani⁴ 

[1] Institute for Astrophysical Research, Boston University, 725 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, MA 02215, USA;Korea Astronomy and Space Institute, 776 Daedeokdae-ro, Yuseong-gu, Daejeon 34055, Korea;Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, Auf dem Hügel 69, Bonn 53121, Germany;NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA;

关键词: active galaxies;    BL Lacertae object: BL Lac;    jets;    GMVA;    high-resolution VLBI;    magnetic field;    polarization;   

DOI  :  10.3390/galaxies4030032

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

The high radio frequency polarization imaging of non-thermal emission from active galactic nuclei (AGN) is a direct way to probe the magnetic field strength and structure in the immediate vicinity of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and is crucial in testing the jet-launching scenario. To explore the the magnetic field configuration at the base of jets in blazars, we took advantage of the full polarization capabilities of the Global Millimeter VLBI Array (GMVA). With an angular resolution of ∼50 micro-arcseconds (μas) at 86 GHz, one could resolve scales up to ∼450 gravitational radii (for a 10 9 solar mass black hole at a redshift of 0.1). We present here the preliminary results of our study on the blazar BL Lac. Our results suggest that on sub-mas scales the core and the central jet of BL Lac are significantly polarized with two distinct regions of polarized intensity. We also noted a great morphological similarity between the 7 mm/3 mm VLBI images at very similar angular resolution.

【 授权许可】

Unknown