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. 2022 Sep;609(7926):265-268.
doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05038-9. Epub 2022 Sep 7.

Rapid quasi-periodic oscillations in the relativistic jet of BL Lacertae

S G Jorstad  1   2 , A P Marscher  3 , C M Raiteri  4 , M Villata  4 , Z R Weaver  3 , H Zhang  5   6 , L Dong  7 , J L Gómez  8 , M V Perel  9 , S S Savchenko  10   11   12 , V M Larionov  10   12 , D Carosati  13   14 , W P Chen  15 , O M Kurtanidze  16   17   18 , A Marchini  19 , K Matsumoto  20 , F Mortari  21 , P Aceti  22   23 , J A Acosta-Pulido  24 , T Andreeva  25 , G Apolonio  26 , C Arena  27 , A Arkharov  12 , R Bachev  28 , M Banfi  22 , G Bonnoli  8   19   29 , G A Borman  30 , V Bozhilov  31 , M I Carnerero  4 , G Damljanovic  32 , S A Ehgamberdiev  33   34 , D Elsässer  35   36 , A Frasca  37 , D Gabellini  21 , T S Grishina  10 , A C Gupta  38 , V A Hagen-Thorn  10 , M K Hallum  3 , M Hart  3 , K Hasuda  39 , F Hemrich  35 , H Y Hsiao  15 , S Ibryamov  40 , T R Irsmambetova  41 , D V Ivanov  25 , M D Joner  26 , G N Kimeridze  16 , S A Klimanov  12 , J Knött  35 , E N Kopatskaya  10 , S O Kurtanidze  16   18 , A Kurtenkov  28 , T Kuutma  42 , E G Larionova  10 , S Leonini  43 , H C Lin  15 , C Lorey  35 , K Mannheim  35   44 , G Marino  27   45 , M Minev  31 , D O Mirzaqulov  33 , D A Morozova  10 , A A Nikiforova  10   12 , M G Nikolashvili  16   18 , E Ovcharov  31 , R Papini  45 , T Pursimo  46   47 , I Rahimov  25 , D Reinhart  35 , T Sakamoto  39 , F Salvaggio  27   45 , E Semkov  28 , D N Shakhovskoy  30 , L A Sigua  16 , R Steineke  35 , M Stojanovic  32 , A Strigachev  28 , Y V Troitskaya  10 , I S Troitskiy  10 , A Tsai  15 , A Valcheva  31 , A A Vasilyev  10 , O Vince  32 , L Waller  35 , E Zaharieva  31 , R Chatterjee  48
Affiliations

Rapid quasi-periodic oscillations in the relativistic jet of BL Lacertae

S G Jorstad et al. Nature. 2022 Sep.

Abstract

Blazars are active galactic nuclei (AGN) with relativistic jets whose non-thermal radiation is extremely variable on various timescales1-3. This variability seems mostly random, although some quasi-periodic oscillations (QPOs), implying systematic processes, have been reported in blazars and other AGN. QPOs with timescales of days or hours are especially rare4 in AGN and their nature is highly debated, explained by emitting plasma moving helically inside the jet5, plasma instabilities6,7 or orbital motion in an accretion disc7,8. Here we report results of intense optical and γ-ray flux monitoring of BL Lacertae (BL Lac) during a dramatic outburst in 2020 (ref. 9). BL Lac, the prototype of a subclass of blazars10, is powered by a 1.7 × 108 MSun (ref. 11) black hole in an elliptical galaxy (distance = 313 megaparsecs (ref. 12)). Our observations show QPOs of optical flux and linear polarization, and γ-ray flux, with cycles as short as approximately 13 h during the highest state of the outburst. The QPO properties match the expectations of current-driven kink instabilities6 near a recollimation shock about 5 parsecs (pc) from the black hole in the wake of an apparent superluminal feature moving down the jet. Such a kink is apparent in a microwave Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) image.

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