Evolving parsec-scale radio structure in the most distant blazar known

Tao An*, Prashanth Mohan, Yingkang Zhang, Sándor Frey, Jun Yang, Krisztina Gabányi, Leonid I. Gurvits, Zsolt Paragi, Krisztina Perger, Zhenya Zheng

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

41 Citations (Scopus)
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Abstract

Blazars are a sub-class of quasars with Doppler boosted jets oriented close to the line of sight, and thus efficient probes of supermassive black hole growth and their environment, especially at high redshifts. Here we report on Very Long Baseline Interferometry observations of a blazar J0906 + 6930 at z = 5.47, which enabled the detection of polarised emission and measurement of jet proper motion at parsec scales. The observations suggest a less powerful jet compared with the general blazar population, including lower proper motion and bulk Lorentz factor. This coupled with a previously inferred high accretion rate indicate a transition from an accretion radiative power to a jet mechanical power based transfer of energy and momentum to the surrounding gas. While alternative scenarios could not be fully ruled out, our results indicate a possibly nascent jet embedded in and interacting with a dense medium resulting in a jet bending.

Original languageEnglish
Article number143
JournalNature Communications
Volume11
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 9 Jan 2020

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