Rani, B.; Krichbaum, T.; Hodgson, J.A.; Koyama, S.; Zensus, A.J.; Fuhramnn, L.; Marscher, A.; Jorstad, S. Exploring the Magnetic Field Configuration in BL Lac UsingGMVA. Galaxies2016, 4, 32.
Rani, B.; Krichbaum, T.; Hodgson, J.A.; Koyama, S.; Zensus, A.J.; Fuhramnn, L.; Marscher, A.; Jorstad, S. Exploring the Magnetic Field Configuration in BL Lac UsingGMVA. Galaxies 2016, 4, 32.
Rani, B.; Krichbaum, T.; Hodgson, J.A.; Koyama, S.; Zensus, A.J.; Fuhramnn, L.; Marscher, A.; Jorstad, S. Exploring the Magnetic Field Configuration in BL Lac UsingGMVA. Galaxies2016, 4, 32.
Rani, B.; Krichbaum, T.; Hodgson, J.A.; Koyama, S.; Zensus, A.J.; Fuhramnn, L.; Marscher, A.; Jorstad, S. Exploring the Magnetic Field Configuration in BL Lac UsingGMVA. Galaxies 2016, 4, 32.
Abstract
The high radio frequency polarization imaging of non-thermal emission from active galactic nuclei (AGN) is a direct way to probe the magnetic field strength and structure in the immediate vicinity of supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and is crucial in testing the jet-launching scenario. To explore the the magnetic field configuration at the base of jets in blazars, we took advantage of the full polarization capabilities of the GMVA (Global Millimeter VLBI Array). With an angular resolution of ~50 micro-arcseconds at 86 GHz, one could reach scales down to ~900 Schwarzschild radii (for a 10^9 solar mass black hole). We present here the preliminary results of our study on the blazar BL Lac. Our results imply that on sub-mas scales the core and central jet of BL Lac is significantly polarized with two distinct regions of polarized intensity. We also noted a great morphological similarity between the 7mm/3mm VLBI images at very similar angular resolution.
Keywords
active galaxies; BL Lacertae object: BL Lac; jets; GMVA: high-resolution VLBI; magnetic field; polarization
Subject
Physical Sciences, Astronomy and Astrophysics
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
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