Observing the Time Evolution of the Multi-Component Nucleus of 3C\,84

Abstract

The advent of global mm-band Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) in recent years has finally revealed the morphology of the base of the two most prominent nearby, bright, extragalactic radio jets in M\,87 and 3C\,84. The images are quite surprising considering the predictions of jet theory and current numerical modeling. The jet bases are extremely wide compared to expectations and the nucleus of 3C\,84 is very complicated. It appears as a double in 86\,GHz observations with 50\,$\mu$as resolution and a triple nucleus with 30\,$\mu$as resolution with space-based VLBI by RadioAstron at 22\,GHz. What is even odder is that the double and triple are arranged along an east-west line that is approximately orthogonal to the north-south large scale jet on 150\,$\mu$as $-$ 4\,mas scales. We explore the emergence of an (east-west) double nucleus in the lower resolution 43\,GHz Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) imaging from August 2018 to April 2020. The double is marginally resolved. We exploit the east-west resolution associated with the longest baselines, $\sim 0.08$\,mas, to track a predominantly east-west separation speed of $\approx 0.086\pm 0.008$\,c. We estimate that the observed mildly relativistic speed persists over a de-projected distance of $\sim 1900-9800$ times the central, supermassive black hole, gravitational radius ($\sim 0.3-1.5$\,lt-yrs) from the point of origin.

arXiv commentTo appear in ApJ

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Cited by in corpus (7)

• Pinpointing the jet apex of 3C 84
• Ordered magnetic fields around the 3C 84 central black hole
• Jet kinematics in the transversely stratified jet of 3C 84 A two-decade overview
• A persistent double nuclear structure in 3C 84
• Evidence for a toroidal magnetic field in the core of 3C 84
• Observational Evidence to Support a Dense Ambient Medium Shaping the Jet in 3C 84
• Evolution, speed, and precession of the parsec-scale jet in the 3C 84 radio galaxy