Core-shift and spectral analysis of the 2006 radio flare in CTA102

Radio source evolution and the interplay with the host galaxy

There is compelling evidence showing that extragalactic jets are a crucial ingredient in the evolution of host galaxies and their environments. Extragalactic jets are well collimated and relativistic, both in terms of thermodynamics and kinematics at sub-parsec and parsec scales. They generate strong shocks in the ambient medium, associated with observed hotspots in FRII radio galaxies, and carve cavities that are filled with the shocked jet flow, dragging a large fraction of the interstellar gas along, in the form of slow, massive outflows within the host galaxies. In this paper, I discuss relevant processes associated to jet evolution in the frame of FRI-FRII dichotomy. In particular, I f…

Catching the radio flare in CTA 102. II. VLBI kinematic analysis

Catching the radio flare in CTA 102. III. Core-shift and spectral analysis

Sub-milliarcsecond imaging of a bright flare and ejection event in the extragalactic jet 3C 111

Context. Flares in radio-loud active galactic nuclei are thought to be associated with the injection of fresh plasma into the compact jet base. Such flares are usually strongest and appear earlier at shorter radio wavelengths. Hence, very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) at millimeter(mm)-wavelengths is the best-suited technique for studying the earliest structural changes of compact jets associated with emission flares. Aims. We study the morphological changes of the parsec-scale jet in the nearby (z = 0.049) γ-ray bright radio galaxy 3C 111 following a flare that developed into a major radio outburst in 2007. Methods. We analyse three successive observations of 3C 111 at 86 GHz with th…

Catching the radio flare in CTA 102

We performed multifrequency multiepoch Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations of the blazar CTA 102 during its 2006 radio flare, the strongest ever reported for this source. These observations provide an excellent opportunity to investigate the evolution of the physical properties of blazars, especially during these flaring events. We want to study the kinematic changes in the source during the strong radio outburst in April 2006 and test the assumption of a shock-shock interaction. This assumption is based on the analysis and modeling of the single-dish observations of CTA\,102 (Paper I). In this paper we study the kinematics of CTA 102 at several frequencies using VLBI observations.…

Simulations of stellar/pulsar wind interaction along one full orbit

The winds from a non-accreting pulsar and a massive star in a binary system collide forming a bow-shaped shock structure. The Coriolis force induced by orbital motion deflects the shocked flows, strongly affecting their dynamics. We study the evolution of the shocked stellar and pulsar winds on scales in which the orbital motion is important. Potential sites of non-thermal activity are investigated. Relativistic hydrodynamical simulations in two dimensions, performed with the code PLUTO and using the adaptive mesh refinement technique, are used to model interacting stellar and pulsar winds on scales ~80 times the distance between the stars. The hydrodynamical results suggest the suitable lo…

Dissipative Processes and Their Role in the Evolution of Radio Galaxies

Particle acceleration in relativistic jets to very high energies occurs at the expense of the dissipation of magnetic or kinetic energy. Therefore, understanding the processes that can trigger this dissipation is key to the characterization of the energy budgets and particle acceleration mechanisms at action in active galaxies. Instabilities and entrainment are two obvious candidates to trigger dissipation. On the one hand, supersonic, relativistic flows threaded by helical fields, as expected from the standard formation models of jets in supermassive black-holes, are unstable to a series of magnetohydrodynamical instabilities, such as the Kelvin-Helmholtz, current-driven, or possibly the p…

On the interaction of jets with stellar winds in XRBs

We present the first three-dimensional simulations of the evolution of a microquasar jet inside the binary-star system. The aim is to study the interaction of these jets with the stellar wind from a massive companion and the possible locations of high-energy emission sites. We have simulated two jets with different injection power in order to give a hint on the minimum power required for the jet to escape the system and become visible in larger scales. In the setup, we include a massive star wind filling the grid through which the jet evolves. We show that jets should have powers of the order of $10^{37}\rm{erg/s}$ or more in order not to be destroyed by the stellar wind. The jet-wind inter…

Propagation and stability of relativistic jets

A simple look at the steady high-energy Universe reveals a clear correlation with outflows generated around compact objects (winds and jets). In the case of relativistic jets, they are thought to be produced as a consequence of the extraction of rotational energy from a Kerr black hole (Blandford-Znajek), or from the disc (Blandford-Payne). A fraction of the large energy budget provided by accretion and/or black hole rotational energy is invested into jet formation. After formation, the acceleration and collimation of these outflows allow them to propagate to large distances away from the compact object. The synchrotron cooling times demand that re-acceleration of particles takes place alon…

Jet dynamics and stability

The dynamics and stability of extragalactic jets may be strongly influenced by small (and probable) di_erences in pressure between the jet and the ambient and within the jet itself. The former give rise to expansion and recollimation of the jet. This occurs in the form of conical shocks, or Mach disks, if the pressure di_erence is large enough. Pressure asymmetries within the jet may trigger the development of helical patterns via coupling to kink current-driven instability, or to helical Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, depending on the physical conditions in the jet. I summarize here the evidence collected during the last years on the presence of recollimation shocks and waves in jets. In th…

Unification and physical interpretation of the radio spectra variability patterns in Fermi blazars and jet emission from NLSy1s

The F-GAMMA program is among the most comprehensive programs that aim at understanding the physics in active galactic nuclei through the multi-frequency monitoring of Fermi blazars. Here we discuss monthly sampled broad-band radio spectra (2.6 - 142 GHz). Two different studies are presented. (a) We discuss that the variability patterns traced can be classified into two classes: (1) to those showing intense spectral-evolution and (2) those showing a self-similar quasi-achromatic behaviour. We show that a simple two-component model can very well reproduce the observed phenomenologies. (b) We present the cm-to-mm behaviour of three gamma-ray bright Narrow Line Seyfert 1 galaxies over time span…

Catching the radio flare in CTA 102

Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations can resolve the radio structure of active galactic nuclei (AGN) and provide estimates of the structural and kinematic characteristics on parsec-scales in their jets. The changes in the kinematics of the observed jet features can be used to study the physical conditions in the innermost regions of these sources. We performed multifrequency multiepoch Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations of the blazar CTA102 during its 2006 radio flare, the strongest ever reported for this source. These observations provide an excellent opportunity to investigate the evolution of the physical properties of blazars, especially during these flaring e…

S5 0836+710 image at 1.6GHz

VizieR online Data Catalogue associated with article published in journal Astronomy & Astrophysics with title 'S5 0836+710: An FRII jet disrupted by the growth of a helical instability?' (bibcode: 2012A&A...545A..65P)

Jet collimation in NGC 315

VizieR online Data Catalogue associated with article published in journal Astronomy & Astrophysics with title 'Jet collimation in NGC 315 and other nearby AGN.' (bibcode: 2021A&A...647A..67B)

LOFAR images of blazar S5 0836+710

The emission and proper motion of the terminal hotspots of active galactic nucleus (AGN) jets can be used as a powerful probe of the intergalactic medium. However, measurements of hotspot advance speeds in active galaxies are difficult, especially in the young universe, because of the low angular velocities and the low brightness of distant radio galaxies. Our goal is to study the termination of an AGN jet in the young universe and to deduce physical parameters of the jet and the intergalactic medium. We used the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) to image the long-wavelength radio emission of the high-redshift blazar S5 0836+710 on arcsecond scales between 120MHz and 160MHz. The LOFAR image shows…