Megaparsec-scale Radio Structure Associated with a Hybrid Blazar SBS B1646+499: Episodic Jet Activity with Precessing Axis [HEAP]

http://arxiv.org/abs/1809.04867


Here we report on the total-intensity 610 MHz GMRT observations of the peculiar hybrid blazar SBS B1646+499, which merges the properties of BL Lacertae objects and flat-spectrum radio quasars. The complex radio structure of SBS B1646+499, emerging from the archival radio data and our new GMRT observations, consists of the Mpc-scale, elongated halo, the unilateral kpc-scale jet, and the nuclear jet extending up to 20pc from the compact core. The giant halo is characterized by a steep radio spectrum, indicative of the advanced ageing of the electron population within the lobes. For the large-scale jet, we detected a spectral gradient along and across the outflow, and in particular spectral flattening of the radio continuum toward the jet edges, suggestive of the spine–boundary shear layer morphology. The nuclear jet displays superluminal knots emerging from the self-absorbed and variable radio core. We interpret all these findings in the framework of the model of an episodic jet activity with a precessing jet axis.

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U. Pajdosz-Smierciak, M. Jamrozy, M. Soida, et. al.
Fri, 14 Sep 18
31/65

Comments: 10 pages, 5 figures; accepted for publication in ApJ