A decade of joint MOJAVE$-$Fermi AGN monitoring: localisation of the gamma-ray emission region


Abstract in English

Within the MOJAVE VLBA program (Monitoring of Jets in AGN with VLBA Experiments), we have accumulated observational data at 15 GHz for hundreds of jets in $gamma$-ray bright active galactic nuclei since the beginning of the Fermi scientific observations in August 2008. We investigated a time delay between the flux density of AGN parsec-scale radio emission at 15 GHz and 0.1$-$300 GeV Fermi LAT photon flux, taken from constructed light curves using weekly and adaptive binning. The correlation analysis shows that radio is lagging $gamma$-ray radiation by up to 8 months in the observers frame, while in the source frame, the typical delay is about 2-3 months. If the jet radio emission, excluding the opaque core, is considered, significant correlation is found at greater time lags. We supplement these results with VLBI kinematics and core shift data to conclude that the dominant high-energy production zone is typically located within the 15 GHz VLBA core at a distance of a few parsecs from the central nucleus.

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