The Total and Polarized Radio Emission from the Innermost Jets of a High-Redshift Quasar and a Candidate at Parsec-Scale Resolution

Abstract

High-frequency very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) polarimetry probes synchrotron-emitting plasma closer to the central engines of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGNs), but observations above 43 GHz are technically demanding. We present 22-GHz European VLBI Network observations of the $z=4.31$ quasar J1510+5702 and J1606+3124, whose published spectroscopic redshift, $z=4.56$, is uncertain; a photometric estimate gives $z_{\mathrm{phot}}=0.9\pm 0.1$. For the published $z>4$ redshifts, 22 GHz corresponds to rest-frame frequencies above 118 GHz. Polarized emission is detected in J1510+5702, and a low-level polarized signal is recovered from the brightest feature of J1606+3124. Adopting $z=4.56$, that feature has a brightness temperature of $T_{\mathrm{b},\mathrm{VLBI}}=(7.4\pm 0.8)\cdot 10^{10}$ K, allowing a mildly Doppler-boosted interpretation, while the young compact-source scenario also remains viable. The core of J1510+5702 has $T_{\mathrm{b},\mathrm{VLBI}}=(1.08\pm 0.15)\cdot 10^{12}$ K, implying a Doppler factor of $\sim 22$ under the equipartition assumption. This component has a $\sim 3.5$ % fractional polarization. These observations show that cm-wavelength VLBI can access rest-frame millimeter-band polarization in bright $z>4$ jets.

17 pages, 3 figures, accepted for publication in MDPI Universe

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