Pilot KaVA monitoring on the M 87 jet: Confirming the inner jet structure and superluminal motions at sub-pc scales

Abstract

We report the initial results of our high-cadence monitoring program on the radio jet in the active galaxy M 87, obtained by the KVN and VERA Array (KaVA) at 22 GHz. This is a pilot study that preceded a larger KaVA–M 87 monitoring program, which is currently ongoing. The pilot monitoring was mostly performed every two to three weeks from 2013 December to 2014 June, at a recording rate of 1 Gbps, obtaining data for a total of ten epochs. We successfully obtained a sequence of good quality radio maps that revealed the rich structure of this jet from 1 mas to 20 mas, corresponding to physical scales (projected) of ∼0.1–2 pc (or ∼140–2800 Schwarzschild radii). We detected superluminal motions at these scales, together with a trend of gradual acceleration. The first evidence for such fast motions and acceleration near the jet base were obtained from recent VLBA studies at 43 GHz, and the fact that very similar kinematics are seen at a different frequency and time with a different instrument suggests that these properties are fundamental characteristics of this jet. This pilot program demonstrates that KaVA is a powerful VLBI array for studying the detailed structural evolution of the M 87 jet and also other relativistic jets.