The Relativistic Jet-accretion Flow-wind Connection in Mrk 231
Long-term radio monitoring of the broad absorption line (BAL) quasar Mrk 231 at 17.6 GHz detected a strong flare in 2015. This triggered four epochs of Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations from 8.4 to 43 GHz as well as three epochs of X-ray observations with NuSTAR and two with XMM over a 15...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Journal Article |
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Institute of Physics Publishing
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/51936 |
| _version_ | 1848758803969867776 |
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| author | Reynolds, C. Punsly, B. Miniutti, G. O'Dea, C. Hurley-Walker, Natasha |
| author_facet | Reynolds, C. Punsly, B. Miniutti, G. O'Dea, C. Hurley-Walker, Natasha |
| author_sort | Reynolds, C. |
| building | Curtin Institutional Repository |
| collection | Online Access |
| description | Long-term radio monitoring of the broad absorption line (BAL) quasar Mrk 231 at 17.6 GHz detected a strong flare in 2015. This triggered four epochs of Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations from 8.4 to 43 GHz as well as three epochs of X-ray observations with NuSTAR and two with XMM over a 15 week period. Two ejected components were detected by the VLBA observations. A conservative lower bound on the apparent speed of the first ejection is attained by assuming that it was ejected when the flare began, v app > 3.15c. Serendipitous far-UV Hubble Space Telescope observations combined with our long-term radio monitoring seem to indicate that episodes of relativistic ejections suppress flux that is emitted at wavelengths shortward of the peak of the far-UV spectral energy distribution, similar to what has been observed in radio-loud quasars. Episodes of strong jet production also seem to suppress the high-ionization BAL wind seen in weak jet states. We found a statistically significant increase (~25%) of the 3-12 keV flux during the radio flare relative to a quiescent radio state. This is explained by an ultra-fast (~0.06c) X-ray-absorbing photoionized wind that is significantly detected only in the low-radio state (similar to Galactic black holes). Mrk 231 is becoming more radio loud. We found that the putative parsec-scale radio lobe doubled in brightness in nine years. Furthermore, large flares are more frequent, with three major flares occurring at ~2 year intervals. |
| first_indexed | 2025-11-14T09:49:48Z |
| format | Journal Article |
| id | curtin-20.500.11937-51936 |
| institution | Curtin University Malaysia |
| institution_category | Local University |
| last_indexed | 2025-11-14T09:49:48Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Institute of Physics Publishing |
| recordtype | eprints |
| repository_type | Digital Repository |
| spelling | curtin-20.500.11937-519362017-09-13T15:48:31Z The Relativistic Jet-accretion Flow-wind Connection in Mrk 231 Reynolds, C. Punsly, B. Miniutti, G. O'Dea, C. Hurley-Walker, Natasha Long-term radio monitoring of the broad absorption line (BAL) quasar Mrk 231 at 17.6 GHz detected a strong flare in 2015. This triggered four epochs of Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations from 8.4 to 43 GHz as well as three epochs of X-ray observations with NuSTAR and two with XMM over a 15 week period. Two ejected components were detected by the VLBA observations. A conservative lower bound on the apparent speed of the first ejection is attained by assuming that it was ejected when the flare began, v app > 3.15c. Serendipitous far-UV Hubble Space Telescope observations combined with our long-term radio monitoring seem to indicate that episodes of relativistic ejections suppress flux that is emitted at wavelengths shortward of the peak of the far-UV spectral energy distribution, similar to what has been observed in radio-loud quasars. Episodes of strong jet production also seem to suppress the high-ionization BAL wind seen in weak jet states. We found a statistically significant increase (~25%) of the 3-12 keV flux during the radio flare relative to a quiescent radio state. This is explained by an ultra-fast (~0.06c) X-ray-absorbing photoionized wind that is significantly detected only in the low-radio state (similar to Galactic black holes). Mrk 231 is becoming more radio loud. We found that the putative parsec-scale radio lobe doubled in brightness in nine years. Furthermore, large flares are more frequent, with three major flares occurring at ~2 year intervals. 2017 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/51936 10.3847/1538-4357/836/2/155 Institute of Physics Publishing fulltext |
| spellingShingle | Reynolds, C. Punsly, B. Miniutti, G. O'Dea, C. Hurley-Walker, Natasha The Relativistic Jet-accretion Flow-wind Connection in Mrk 231 |
| title | The Relativistic Jet-accretion Flow-wind Connection in Mrk 231 |
| title_full | The Relativistic Jet-accretion Flow-wind Connection in Mrk 231 |
| title_fullStr | The Relativistic Jet-accretion Flow-wind Connection in Mrk 231 |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Relativistic Jet-accretion Flow-wind Connection in Mrk 231 |
| title_short | The Relativistic Jet-accretion Flow-wind Connection in Mrk 231 |
| title_sort | relativistic jet-accretion flow-wind connection in mrk 231 |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/51936 |