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• 4C +12.50: A Superluminal Precessing Jet in the Recent Merger System IRAS 13451+1232,
  M.L. Lister, K.I. Kellermann, R.C. Vermeulen, M.H. Cohen, J.A. Zensus, & E. Ros
  Astrophysical Journal, 584:135-146 (2003)
  
  • Abstract We present the results of a multi-epoch VLBA study of the powerful radio source 4C +12.50 (PKS 1345+125) at a wavelength of 2cm. This compact radio source is associated with a hidden quasar whose host galaxy shows signs of a recent merger. It has been classified as a compact symmetric source (CSO) due to its small overall size (~220pc) and twin-jet morphology. We report the detection of exceedingly high linear fractional polarization in isolated features of the southern jet (up to 60%), which is highly unusual for a CSO. Given the large amount of gas present in the host galaxy, we would expect significant faraday depolarization across the whole source, unless the depolarizing gas is fairly clumpy. The southern jet also contains two features that are moving outward from the core at apparent speeds of v/c=1.0 +/- 0.3 and 1.2 +/- 0.3. These represent the first positive detections of superluminal motion in a CSO, and taken together with the jet to counter-jet are consistent with a conical helix of wavelength 280 pc that is the result of Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities driven by a slow prcession of the jet nozzle. A fit to the data implies that the nozzle is precessing around a cone with half-angle 23^o, whose axis lies at an angle of 82^o to the line of sight. We suggest that the "S"-shaped jet morphologies commonly seen in recent AGN outflows such as 4C +12.50 may simply reflect the fact that their black hole spin axes are still precessing and have not had sufficient time to align with their accretion disks.

Eduardo Ros ros@mpifr-bonn.mpg.de

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