Discovery of off-axis jet structure of TeV blazar Mrk 501 with mm-VLBI

Context. High-resolution millimeter wave very-long-baseline interferometry (mm-VLBI) is an ideal tool for probing the structure at the base of extragalactic jets in detail. The TeV blazar Mrk 501 is one of the best targets among BL Lac objects for studying the nature of off-axis jet structures because it shows different jet position angles at different scales. Aims. The aim of this study is to investigate the properties of the off-axis jet structure through high-resolution mm-VLBI images at the jet base and physical parameters such as kinematics, flux densities, and spectral indices. Methods. We performed Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations over six epochs from 2012 February to 201…