Understanding the physical environment of relativistic jet from 3C 279 using its spectral and temporal information

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

Abstract

Blazars are a subclass of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) with relativistic jets aligned with our line of sight. The jet physics is yet to be understood, but can be studied with blazar variability (e.g., flares). The highly variable blazar 3C 279 has shown a general decline of its radio flux density since 2013, but the flux density has been increasing since 2017. To better understand physical properties of 3C 279 related with the flux variations, we analyze multi-frequency new radio data obtained with Korean VLBI Network (KVN), as well as archival data from Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) and Submillimeter Array (SMA). We measure the radio spectral variability and infer the relativistic jet properties of 3C 279. The high-cadence OVRO and SMA observations are used to construct detailed light curves of the source, and KVN data supplement the spectral coverage and allow us to locate the spectral break frequencies precisely. In this talk, we present our analysis results and interpret them using a blazar jet model.

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