On the nature of an ejection event in the jet of 3C111

Abstract

We present a possible scenario for the ejection of a superluminal component in the jet of the Broad Line Radio Galaxy 3C111 in early 1996. VLBI observations at 15 GHz discovered the presence of two jet features on scales smaller than one parsec. The first component evolves downstream, whereas the second one fades out after 1 parsec. We propose the injection of a perturbation of dense material followed by a decrease in the injection rate of material in the jet as a plausible explanation. This scenario is supported by 1D relativistic hydrodynamics and emission simulations. The perturbation is modeled as an increase in the jet density, without modifying the original Lorentz factor in the initial conditions. We show that an increase of the Lorentz factor in the material of the perturbation fails to reproduce the observed evolution of this flare. We are able to estimate the lifetime of the ejection event in 3C111 to be 36\pm7 days.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters

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Cited by in corpus (11)

• Relativistic Jets in the Radio Reference Frame Image Database II: Blazar Jet Accelerations from the First 10 Years of Data (1994 - 2003)
• The First Simultaneous 3.5 and 1.3mm Polarimetric Survey of Active Galactic Nuclei in the Northern Sky
• A 3.5mm Polarimetric Survey of Radio-loud Active Galactic Nuclei
• Catching the radio flare in CTA 102: II. VLBI kinematic analysis
• VLBA polarimetric monitoring of 3C 111
• On the location of the supermassive black hole in CTA 102
• Jet stability, dynamics and energy transport
• Flare echos from relaxation shocks in perturbed relativistic jets
• Kinetic power of quasars and statistical excess of MOJAVE superluminal motions
• Sub-milliarcsecond imaging of a bright flare and ejection event in the extragalactic jet 3C 111
• Multifrequency simultaneous VLBA view of the radio source 3C 111