The unique case of the active galactic nucleus core of M87: A misaligned low-power blazar?

Abstract

M87 hosts one of the closest jetted active galactic nuclei (AGN) to Earth. Thanks to its vicinity and to the large mass of its central black hole, M87 is the only source in which the jet can be directly imaged downto near-event horizon scales with radio very large baseline interferometry. This property makes M87 a unique source to isolate and study jet launching, acceleration, and collimation. In this paper, we employ a multizone model designed as a parametrization of general relativistic magnetohydrodynamics (GRMHD); for the first time, we reproduce the jet's observed shape and multiwavelength spectral energy distribution simultaneously. We find strong constraints on key physical parameters of the jet, such as the location of particle acceleration and the kinetic power. However, we underpredict the (unresolved) gamma-ray flux of the source, implying that the high-energy emission does not originate in the magnetically dominated inner jet regions. Our results have important implications both for comparisons of GRMHD simulations with observations and for unified models of AGN classes.