Master Colloquium
Vladislav Makeev	SCHEDULED

MPIfR

The processes of release and transport of energy in radio loud AGN can be best understood by determining accurately the properties of relativistic jets on finest angular and linear scales. The powerful jet in the nearby elliptical galaxy M87 is one of the best targets for such a study. In this work, we apply the novel Bayesian imaging framework RESOLVE to re-imaging and re-analysis of the state-of-the art 43 GHz VLBI observations of Walker et al., which allows us to recover and study the structure and evolution of the jet within ~250 Schwarzschild radii from its origin. While this region previously could only be examined through static imaging or kinematic modelling of discrete emitting regions (jet components), we are able to track and model continuous structural changes in the jet limbs themselves, revealing coherent wave-like patterns propagating downstream. These features can be interpreted as signatures of a helical structure, potentially tracing a magnetic flux tube anchored to the accretion disk — providing, for the first time, a near-direct observational glimpse into magnetically dominated structure within an AGN jet.