Estimating the Jet Power of Mrk\,231 During the 2017-2018 Flare

Abstract

Long-term 17.6~GHz radio monitoring of the broad absorption line quasar, Mrk\,231, detected a strong flare in late 2017. This triggered four epochs of Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations from 8.4~GHz to 43~GHz over a 10-week period as well as an X-ray observation with NuSTAR. This was the third campaign of VLBA monitoring that we have obtained. The 43~GHz VLBA was degraded in all epochs with only 7 of 10 antennas available in three epochs and 8 in the first epoch. However, useful results were obtained due to a fortuitous capturing of a complete short 100~mJy flare at 17.6~GHz: growth and decay. This provided useful constraints on the physical model of the ejected plasma that were not available in previous campaigns. We consider four classes of models, discrete ejections (both protonic and positronic) and jetted (protonic and positronic). The most viable model is a "dissipative bright knot" in a faint background leptonic jet with an energy flux $\sim 10^{43}$ ergs/sec. Inverse Compton scattering calculations (based on these models) in the ambient quasar photon field explains the lack of a detectable increase in X-ray luminosity measured by NuSTAR. We show that the core (the bright knot) moves towards a nearby secondary at $\approx 0.97$c. The background jet is much fainter. Evidently, the high frequency VLBA core does not represent the point of origin of blazar jets, in general, and optical depth "core shift" estimates of jet points of origin can be misleading.

arXiv commentAccepted version for ApJ

References in corpus (67)

• The Leiden/Argentine/Bonn (LAB) Survey of Galactic HI: Final data release of the combined LDS and IAR surveys with improved stray-radiation corrections
• First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. IV. Imaging the Central Supermassive Black Hole
• General Relativistic Magnetohydrodynamic Simulations of Magnetically Choked Accretion Flows around Black Holes
• General physical properties of bright Fermi blazars
• The Rest-Frame Extreme Ultraviolet Spectral Properties of QSOs
• Revisiting the Infrared Spectra of Active Galactic Nuclei with a New Torus Emission Model
• The Soft X-Ray Properties of a Complete Sample of Optically Selected Quasars II. Final Results
• DiFX2: A more flexible, efficient, robust and powerful software correlator
• The emission line - radio correlation for radio sources using the 7C Redshift Survey
• A Composite HST Spectrum of Quasars
• MERLIN observations of relativistic ejections from GRS 1915+105
• A New Sample of Low-mass Black Holes in Active Galaxies
• M87 at 90cm: A Different Picture
• Kinematics of Parsec-Scale Jets of Gamma-Ray Blazars at 43~GHz within the VLBA-BU-BLAZAR Program
• A Description of Quasar Variability Measured Using Repeated SDSS and POSS Imaging
• The multi-phase winds of Markarian 231: from the hot, nuclear, ultra-fast wind to the galaxy-scale, molecular outflow
• Properties of Radio-Selected Broad Absorption-Line Quasars from the FIRST Survey
• Starburst and AGN activity in ultraluminous infrared galaxies
• The Arcminute Microkelvin Imager
• On Why Disks Generate Magnetic Towers and Collimate Jets
• X-ray Emission Properties of Large Scale Jets, Hotspots and Lobes in Active Galactic Nuclei
• Hard X-ray states and radio emission in GRS 1915+105
• The Intrinsic Fraction of Broad Absorption Line Quasars
• The active nuclei of z<1.0 3CRR radio sources
• Toward a Self Consistent Model of the Ionized Absorber in NGC 3783
• Hot Graphite Dust and the Infrared Spectral Energy Distribution of Active Galactic Nuclei
• The origins of X-ray emission from the hotspots of FRII radio sources
• The central parsecs of M87: jet emission and an elusive accretion disc
• Multiwavelength Energy Distributions and Bolometric Luminosities of the 12--Micron Galaxy Sample
• Spectral Variability of Quasars in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. I: Wavelength Dependence
• Are Radio AGN Powered by Accretion or Black Hole Spin?
• The XMM-Newton and BeppoSAX view of the Ultra Luminous Infrared Galaxy MKN 231
• Sub-Relativistic Radio Jets and Parsec-Scale Absorption in Two Seyfert Galaxies
• The Observational Appearance of Slim Accretion Disks
• VLBI Imaging of Luminous Infrared Galaxies: AGN Cores in Mrk231, UGC 5101 & NGC 7469
• {\it NuSTAR} Reveals an Intrinsically X-ray Weak Broad Absorption Line Quasar in the Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxy Markarian 231
• The FIRST Bright Quasar Survey III. The South Galactic Cap
• Parsec-Scale Blazar Monitoring: Flux and Polarization Variability
• Radio Continuum Evidence for Outflow and Absorption in the Seyfert 1 Galaxy Markarian 231
• The Physical Nature of Polar Broad Absorption Line Quasars
• X-raying the Ultraluminous Infrared Starburst Galaxy and Broad Absorption Line QSO, Markarian 231, with Chandra
• Evidence for radio-source heating of groups
• Radio, optical and X-ray nuclei in nearby 3CRR radio galaxies
• Low-z MgII Broad Absorption-Line Quasars from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• Dependence of the BALQSO fraction on Radio Luminosity
• A relativistic jet in the radio-quiet quasar PG1407+263
• The nuclei of radio galaxies in the UV: the signature of different emission processes
• The Spitzer view of FR-I radio galaxies: on the origin of the nuclear mid-infrared continuum
• GALEX observations of quasar variability in the ultraviolet
• The Surprising Absence of Absorption in the Far-Ultraviolet Spectrum of Mrk 231
• The XMM-Newton View of the Broad-Line Radio Galaxy 3C 120
• Quantifying the anisotropy in the infrared emission of powerful AGN
• VLBA Observations of Sub-Parsec Structure in Mrk 231: Interaction between a Relativistic Jet and a BAL Wind
• The parsec-scale structure of radio-loud broad absorption line quasars
• Suzaku reveals X-ray continuum piercing the nuclear absorber in Markarian 231
• X-ray Absorption in Type II Quasars: Implications for the Equatorial Paradigm of Broad Absorption Line Quasars
• Evidence of the Dynamics of Relativistic Jet Launching in Quasars
• The Relativistic Jet-Accretion Flow-Wind Connection in Mrk\,231
• Characterizing the radio--X-ray connection in GRS 1915+105
• The Extreme Ultraviolet Deficit and Magnetically Arrested Accretion in Radio Loud Quasars
• A Blazar-Like Radio Flare in Mrk 231
• VLBA Multi-frequency Polarimetric imaging of Radio-loud Broad Absorption Line Quasars
• Infrared polarimetry of Mrk 231: Scattering off hot dust grains in the central core
• The Extreme Ultraviolet Deficit - Jet Connection in the Quasar 1442+101
• Misalignment of the Jet and the Normal to the Dusty Torus in the Broad Absorption Line QSO FIRST\,J155633.8+351758
• A Multi-Component Analysis Indicates a Positronic Major Flare in GRS 1915+105
• Discrete and Continuous Ejection Models of the Radio Source Associated with GW170817

Cited by in corpus (8)

• The obstructed jet in Mrk 231
• AGN Jets and Winds in Polarised Light: The Case of Mrk 231
• Mildly Relativistic Motion in the Radio Quiet Quasar PG 1351+640
• The Highly Self-Absorbed Blazar, PKS\,1351$-$018
• Did the Event Horizon Telescope Detect the Base of the Sub-Milliarsecond Tubular Jet in M\,87?
• The Energetics of Launching the Most Powerful Jets in Quasars: A Study of 3C82
• The Energetics of the Central Engine in the Powerful Quasar, 3C298
• VLBI Detection of an Active Radio Source Potentially Driving 100-kpc Scale Emission in the Ultraluminous Infrared Galaxy IRAS F01004$-$2237