VLBI radio structure and radio brightening of the high-energy neutrino emitting blazar TXS 0506+056

Abstract

We report on the radio brightening of the blazar TXS 0506+056 (at $z=0.3365$), supporting its identification as source of the high-energy (HE) neutrino IC-170922A by the IceCube Neutrino Observatory. MOJAVE/VLBA data indicate its radio brightness abruptly increasing since January 2016. When decomposing the total radio flux density curve (January 2008 - July 2018) provided by the Owens Valley Radio Observatory into eight Gaussian flares, the peak time of the largest flare overlaps with the HE neutrino detection, while the total flux density exhibits a threefold increase since January 2016. We reveal the radio structure of TXS 0506+056 by analysing VLBI data from the MOJAVE/VLBA Survey. The jet-components maintain quasi-stationary core separations. The structure of the ridge line is indicative of a jet curve at the region $0.5÷2$ mas ($2.5÷9.9$ pc projected) from the VLBI core. The brightness temperature of the core and the pc-scale radio morphology support a helical jet structure at small inclination angle ($<8.2^{\circ }$). The jet pointing towards the Earth is key property facilitating multimessenger observations (HE neutrinos, $\gamma$- and radio flares). The radio brightening preceding the detection of a HE neutrino is similar to the one reported for the blazar PKS 0723--008 and IceCube event ID5.

arXiv comment5 pages, 3 tables, 4 figures, accepted to MNRAS Letters

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• Recurrent Neutrino Emission from Supermassive Black Hole Mergers
• The parsec-scale jet of the neutrino-emitting blazar TXS~0506+056
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• The Observation of High-Energy Neutrinos from the Cosmos: Lessons Learned for Multimessenger Astronomy
• Signatures of a spinning supermassive black hole binary on the mas-scale jet of the quasar S5 1928+738 based on 25 years of VLBI data
• TELAMON: Effelsberg Monitoring of AGN Jets with Very-High-Energy Astroparticle Emissions
• A two-step strategy to identify episodic sources of gravitational waves and high energy neutrinos in starburst galaxies