Identification Of Jet Components Of CTA 102 On Milliarcsecond Scales Using The iMOGABA Program

  • Kim, Sang-Hyun (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute) ;
  • Lee, Sang-Sung (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute) ;
  • Hodgson, Jeffrey A. (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute) ;
  • Lee, Jee Won (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute) ;
  • Kang, Sincheol (Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute) ;
  • Yoo, Sung-Min (Department of Astronomy and Space Sciences, Chungbuk National University)
  • Published : 2019.04.10

Abstract

CTA 102, one of gamma-ray bright active galactic nuclei (AGN) has been observed with Korean very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) network (KVN) during the period of 2012 December-2018 May as part of interferometric Monitoring Of Gamma-ray Bright AGN (iMOGABA). Multi-frequency VLBI observations enable us to compare the milliarcsecond(mas)-scale iMOGABA images of relativistic jets with those from the Monitoring Of Jets in AGN with Very long baseline array (VLBA) Experiments (MOJAVE) and the VLBA-Boston University(BU)-BLAZAR programs which use VLBA with its angular resolutions of 0.2-1.3 mas. In spite of the relative larger beam sizes of KVN (1-10 mas), we are able to identify jet components of CTA 102 using the KVN multi-frequency VLBI observations with those resolved with VLBA. Considering an instrumental beam blending effect on the jet component identification, we were able to obtain a blending shift of the core position based on a convolution analysis using the VLBA data. When we apply the core position shift to the KVN images of CTA 102, we find that the identified jet components of CTA 102 from the KVN observations are well matched with those from the VLBA observations. Based on the results of the analysis, we may be able to study the jet kinematics and its correlation with gamma-ray flare activity.

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