Conical Stream of the Two-Sided Jets in NGC 4261 over the Range of 103–109 Schwarzschild Radii

Abstract

We report the jet width profile of of the nearby ( ∼ 30 Mpc ) AGN NGC 4261 for both the approaching jet and the counter jet at radial distances ranging from ∼ 10 3 – 10 9 Schwarzschild radius ( R S ) from the central engine. Our Very Large Array (VLA) and Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA) observations reveal that the jets maintain a conical structure on both sides over the range 10 3 – 10 9 R S without any structural transition (i.e., parabolic to conical) like in the approaching jet in M87. Thus, NGC 4261 will provide a unique opportunity to examine the conical jet hypothesis in blazars, while it may require some additional consideration on the acceleration and collimation process in AGN jets.

Keywords

• AGN jet
• jet structure
• VLBI observations