Possible detection of apparent superluminal inward motion in Markarian 421 after the giant x-ray flare in 2010 February

Abstract

We report on the very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) follow-up observations using the Japanese VLBI Network array at 22GHz for the largest X-ray flare of TeV blazar Mrk 421 that occurred in 2010 mid-February. The total of five epochs of observations were performed at intervals of about 20days between 2010 March 7 and May 31. No newborn component associated with the flare was seen directly in the total intensity images obtained by our multi-epoch VLBI observations. However, one jet component located at ∼1 mas northwest from the core was able to be identified, and its proper motion can be measured as -1.66 ± 0.46 mas yr-1, which corresponds to an apparent velocity of -3.48 ± 0.97c. Here, this negative velocity indicates that the jet component was apparently moving toward the core. As the most plausible explanation, we discuss that the apparent negative velocity was possibly caused by the ejection of a new component, which could not be resolved with our observations. In this case, the obtained Doppler factor of the new component is around 10-20, which is consistent with the ones typically estimated by model fittings of spectral energy distribution for this source. © 2012. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved..