Magnetic Field Strengths of the Synchrotron Self-Absorption Region in the Jet of CTA 102 During Radio Flares
arXiv:2111.14025 · doi:10.1093/mnras/stab3473
Abstract
CTA 102 is a blazar implying that its relativistic jet points towards Earth and emits synchrotron radiation produced by energetic particles gyrating in the magnetic field. This study aims to figure out the physical origins of radio flares in the jet, including the connection between the magnetic field and the radio flares. The dataset in the range 2.6-343.5 GHz was collected over a period of 5.5 years (2012 November 20-2018 September 23). During the data collection period, seven flares at 15 GHz with a range of the variability time-scale of roughly 26-171 days were detected. The quasi-simultaneous radio data were used to investigate the synchrotron spectrum of the source. We found that the synchrotron radiation is self-absorbed. The turnover frequency and the peak flux density of the synchrotron self-absorption (SSA) spectra are in the ranges of 42-167 GHz and 0.9-10.2 Jy, respectively. From the SSA spectra, we derived the SSA magnetic field strengths to be 9.20 mG, 12.28 mG, and 50.97 mG on 2013 December 24, 2014 February 28, and 2018 January 13, respectively. We also derived the equipartition magnetic field strengths to be in the range 24-109 mG. The equipartition magnetic field strengths are larger than the SSA magnetic field strengths in most cases, which indicates that particle energy mainly dominates in the jet. Our results suggest that the flares in the jet of CTA 102 originated due to particle acceleration. We propose the possible mechanisms of particle acceleration.
arXiv comment19 pages, 8 figures, 6 tables, accepted for publication in MNRAS
References in corpus (61)
- emcee: The MCMC Hammer
- Unified Schemes for Radio-Loud Active Galactic Nuclei
- Relativistic Jets in Active Galactic Nuclei
- Polarimetric Observations of 15 Active Galactic Nuclei at High Frequencies: Jet Kinematics from Bimonthly Monitoring with the Very Long Baseline Array
- Blazars in the Fermi Era: The OVRO 40-m Telescope Monitoring Program
- MOJAVE: Monitoring of Jets in Active Galactic Nuclei with VLBA Experiments. VI. Kinematics Analysis of a Complete Sample of Blazar Jets
- The power of blazar jets
- Doppler factors, Lorentz factors and viewing angles for quasars, BL Lacertae objects and radio galaxies
- MOJAVE: Monitoring of Jets in AGN with VLBA Experiments. V. Multi-epoch VLBA Images
- Kinematics of Parsec-Scale Jets of Gamma-Ray Blazars at 43~GHz within the VLBA-BU-BLAZAR Program
- MOJAVE: Monitoring of Jets in AGN with VLBA Experiments - I. First-Epoch 15 GHz Linear Polarization Images
- MOJAVE: XV. VLBA 15 GHz Total Intensity and Polarization Maps of 437 Parsec-Scale AGN Jets From 1996-2017
- Swift observations of the very intense flaring activity of Mrk 421 during 2006: I. Phenomenological picture of electron acceleration and predictions for the MeV/GeV emission
- MOJAVE: Monitoring of Jets in Active Galactic Nuclei with VLBA Experiments. VIII. Faraday rotation in parsec-scale AGN jets
- MOJAVE XIII. Parsec-Scale AGN Jet Kinematics Analysis Based on 19 years of VLBA Observations at 15 GHz
- Magnetic field strength and spectral distribution of six parsec-scale active galactic nuclei jets
- X-ray Emission Properties of Large Scale Jets, Hotspots and Lobes in Active Galactic Nuclei
- Blazar spectral variability as explained by a twisting inhomogeneous jet
- Radiative Processes in High Energy Astrophysics
- Constraining the limiting brightness temperature and Doppler factors for the largest sample of radio bright blazars
- Intrinsic Brightness Temperatures of AGN Jets
- Radio to gamma-ray variability study of blazar S5 0716+714
- Catching the Radio Flare in CTA 102 III. Core-Shift and Spectral Analysis
- Kinetic Luminosity and Composition of Active Galactic Nuclei Jets
- Long-term radio variability of AGN: flare characteristics
- F-GAMMA: Variability Doppler factors of blazars from multiwavelength monitoring
- POLAMI: Polarimetric Monitoring of Active Galactic Nuclei at Millimetre Wavelengths. I. The program, calibration, and calibrators data products
- POLAMI: Polarimetric Monitoring of Active Galactic Nuclei at Millimetre Wavelengths. III. Characterisation of total flux density and polarisation variability of relativistic jets
- Constraints on minimum electron Lorentz factor and matter content of jets for a sample of bright Fermi blazars
- A multi-wavelength polarimetric study of the blazar CTA 102 during a Gamma-ray flare in 2012
- Location of Gamma-ray emission and magnetic field strengths in OJ 287
- Catching the radio flare in CTA 102 I. Light curve analysis
- The First Simultaneous 3.5 and 1.3mm Polarimetric Survey of Active Galactic Nuclei in the Northern Sky
- XPOL - the correlation polarimeter at the IRAM 30m telescope
- A 3.5mm Polarimetric Survey of Radio-loud Active Galactic Nuclei
- On the spine-layer scenario for the very high-energy emission of NGC 1275
- Magnetoluminescence
- Single dish performance of KVN 21-m radio telescopes:Simultaneous observations at 22 and 43 GHz
- Catching the radio flare in CTA 102: II. VLBI kinematic analysis
- POLAMI: Polarimetric Monitoring of Active Galactic Nuclei at Millimetre Wavelengths. II. Widespread circular polarisation
- On the multi-wavelength Emission from CTA 102
- Discerning the -ray emitting region in the flat spectrum radio quasars
- Acceleration of Compact Radio Jets on Sub-parsec Scales
- F-GAMMA: Multi-frequency radio monitoring of Fermi blazars. The 2.64 to 43 GHz Effelsberg light curves from 2007-2015
- The magnetic field structure in CTA 102 from high resolution mm-VLBI observations during the flaring state in 2016-2017
- Cloud ablation by a relativistic jet and the extended flare in CTA 102 in 2016 and 2017
- Interferometric Monitoring of Gamma-ray Bright AGNs I: Results of Single-epoch Multifrequency Observations
- Fermi-Large Area Telescope observations of the brightest Gamma-ray flare ever detected from CTA 102
- Investigating the multiwavelength behaviour of the flat spectrum radio quasar CTA 102 during 2013-2017
- Revealing the Nature of Blazar Radio Cores through Multi-Frequency Polarization Observations with the Korean VLBI Network
- The extended flare in CTA 102 in 2016 and 2017 within a hadronic model through cloud ablation by the relativistic jet
- Probing the innermost regions of AGN jets and their magnetic fields with RadioAstron. III. Blazar S5 0716+71 at microarcsecond resolution
- Search for correlations between the optical and radio polarization of AGNs II: VLBA polarization data at 12+15+22+24+43 GHz
- Imaging and variability studies of CTA~102 during the 2016 January -ray flare
- Maximum Brightness Temperature of an Incoherent Synchrotron Source : Inverse Compton Limit - a Misnomer
- Exploring the Variability of the Flat Spectrum Radio Source 1633+382. I. Phenomenology of the Light Curves
- Exploring the Variability of the Flat Spectrum Radio Source 1633+382. II: Physical Properties
- Interferometric Monitoring of Gamma-ray Bright AGNs: OJ 287
- Korean VLBI Network Calibrator Survey (KVNCS): 1. Source Catalog Of KVN Single Dish Flux Density Measurement In The K And Q Bands
- Interferometric Monitoring of Gamma-ray Bright AGNs: S5 0716+714
- Interferometric Monitoring of Gamma-ray Bright AGNs: Measuring the Magnetic Field Strength of 4C +29.45
Cited by in corpus (6)
- Modeling the time variable spectral energy distribution of the blazar CTA 102 from 2008 to 2022
- Revisiting the proton synchrotron radiation in blazar jets: Possible contributions from X-ray to -ray bands
- Insights into the Long-Term Flaring Events of Blazar PKS 0805-07: A Multi-Wavelength Analysis over the 2009-2023 Period
- Double SSA Spectrum and Magnetic Field Strength of the FSRQ 3C 454.3
- Constraints on VHE gamma-ray emission of Flat Spectrum Radio Quasars with the MAGIC telescopes
- Gamma-ray flares from the jet of the blazar CTA 102 in 2016-2018