A BLAZAR-LIKE RADIO FLARE IN MRK 231

作者：Reynolds Cormac^*; Punsly Brian; O' Dea Christopher P; Hurley Walker Natasha

来源：Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2013, 776(2): L21.

DOI：10.1088/2041-8205/776/2/L21

• accretion, accretion disks
• black hole physics
• galaxies: jets
• quasars: absorption lines
• quasars: general

Radio monitoring of the broad absorption line quasar (BALQSO) Mrk 231 from 13.9 GHz to 17.6 GHz detected a strong flat spectrum flare. Even though BALQSOs are typically weak radio sources, the 17.6 GHz flux density doubled in approximate to 150 days, from approximate to 135 mJy to approximate to 270 mJy. It is demonstrated that the elapsed rise time in the quasar rest frame and the relative magnitude of the flare is typical of some of the stronger flares in blazars that are usually associated with the ejection of discrete components on parsec scales. The decay of a similar flare was found in a previous monitoring campaign at 22 GHz. We conclude that these flares are not rare. The implication is that Mrk 231 seems to be a quasar in which the physical mechanism that produces the broad absorption line wind is in tension with the emergence of a fledgling blazar.

• 出版日期2013-10-20