Astronomy & Astrophysics manuscript no.

output ©ESO 2025

July 16, 2025

Letter to the Editor

Looking into the jet cone of the neutrino-associated very

high-energy blazar PKS 1424+240
Y. Y. Kovalev1 ? , A. B. Pushkarev2, 3 , J. L. Gómez4 , D. C. Homan5 , M. L. Lister6 , J. D. Livingston1 ,
I. N. Pashchenko3 , A. V. Plavin7 , T. Savolainen8, 9, 1 , and S. V. Troitsky10, 11

1
Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy, Auf dem Hügel 69, D–53121 Bonn, Germany
2
Crimean Astrophysical Observatory, 298409 Nauchny, Crimea
3
Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky prospekt 53, 119991 Moscow, Russia
4
Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía-CSIC, Glorieta de la Astronomía s/n, 18008 Granada, Spain
5
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Denison University, Granville, OH 43023, USA
6
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, 525 Northwestern Avenue, West Lafayette, IN 47907, USA
7
Black Hole Initiative, Harvard University, 20 Garden St, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
8
Aalto University Metsähovi Radio Observatory, Metsähovintie 114, FI-02540 Kylmälä, Finland
9
Aalto University Department of Electronics and Nanoengineering, PL 15500, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland
10
Institute for Nuclear Research, 60th October Anniversary Prospect 7a, Moscow 117312, Russia
11
Physics Department, Lomonosov Moscow State University, 1-2 Leninskie Gory, Moscow 119991, Russia

Received 6 May, 2025; accepted 7 July, 2025

ABSTRACT

Context. The acceleration process of massive particles as well as the production of very high-energy (VHE) photons and neutrinos
remains a fundamental challenge in astrophysics.
Aims. We investigate the parsec-scale jet structure and magnetic field of the blazar PKS 1424+240, which was selected on the basis
of strong VHE gamma-ray emission and is identified with one of the highest peaks in the IceCube 9-year neutrino sky.
Methods. We analyzed 15 GHz VLBA observations of this BL Lac object by stacking 42 polarization-sensitive images collected in
2009–2025 to enhance the signal and reveal the persistent parsec-scale structure.
Results. Our observations uncover a rare scenario. The object is viewed inside the jet cone, very close to the axis of its relativistic
jet, with a viewing angle of < 0.6◦ . This effectively maximizes Doppler boosting to values ∼ 30 and enhances the electromagnetic
and neutrino emission in the direction of the observer. Based on polarimetric observations, we unambiguously detect a net toroidal
component in the magnetic field of the jet. This indicates a current-carrying jet that flows almost directly toward our line of sight.
Conclusions. Blazars with very small jet viewing angles offer a solution to the Doppler factor crisis, i.e., to the longstanding mismatch
between Doppler factors inferred from the low apparent jet speed in very long-baseline interferometry and those derived from VHE
observations. We show that relativistic beaming plays the critical role in the gamma-ray and neutrino emission of blazars. This has
direct implications for models of their multimessenger emission.
Key words. Neutrinos – Radio continuum: galaxies – Galaxies: jets – BL Lacertae objects: individual: PKS 1424+240

1. Introduction the Doppler factor δ, the lack of strong apparent superluminal

motions in VLBI-observed jets suggests the opposite. This is
It is of broad interest to understand how the Universe produces known as the Doppler factor crisis (see, e.g., Albert et al. 2007;
photons and neutrinos at the highest observable energies be- Aharonian et al. 2007; Piner & Edwards 2018). Breakthroughs
cause it directly relates to fundamental physics that can only in this area have been rare over the past 35 years, and the
be explored through astronomy. Active galactic nuclei (AGN) Doppler factor crisis still poses a significant barrier to progress.
are strong emitters of very high-energy (VHE) photons (e.g., The neutrino emission from distant blazars is expected to be
Albert et al. 2007; Aharonian et al. 2007) and have been pro- beamed, and the proton acceleration probably occurs preferen-
posed as efficient proton accelerators (starting with Berezinsky tially along the jet direction (e.g., IceCube Collaboration et al.
1977) that can produce neutrinos at TeV–PeV and beyond. Their 2018; Plavin et al. 2025). In contrast, weaker AGN may emit
observed properties are strongly influenced by relativistic beam- neutrinos (Abbasi et al. 2022) without any preferred direction.
ing effects that also introduce significant observational biases.
For example, AGN samples selected based on flux density mea- With a redshift z = 0.605 (Paiano et al. 2017), the BL Lac
sured by Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) are domi- object PKS 1424+240 (common name OQ 240) is the most
nated by distant beamed blazars with a median redshift of z ∼ 1 distant blazar detected in quiescent VHE (e.g., Aleksić et al.
(Petrov & Kovalev 2025); however, the role of beaming at very 2014; Padovani et al. 2022). The all-sky analysis performed by
high energies (& 100 GeV) is not firmly established. While Abbasi et al. (2022) has identified it as the possible source of
the fast variability of VHE gamma-rays implies high values of the second-highest neutrino excess in the predefined source list
in the northern sky (see Figure 1). The best-fit neutrino spec-
?
e-mail: [email protected] trum for PKS 1424+240 is soft, with a spectral index of γ =
Article number, page 1

Article published by EDP Sciences, to be cited as https://doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/202555400

 A&A proofs: manuscript no. output

Ipeak, Ppeak = 206.8, 6.4 and Inoise, Pnoise = 0.02, 0.03 mJy/bm
Icont = 0.07 [x2.0 steps] mJy/bm, EVPA for P 0.10 mJy/bm
40°
4
1424+240, 42 Epoch Stack, VLBA 15.4 GHz
26° MOJAVE Program

IceCube − log 10p

30° 3 2008 2010 2012 2014 2016 2018 2020 2022 2024
24° PKS 1424 + 240 5
Dec

log 10p = − 4.18

2
20°

Linear Polarized Intensity [Jy/bm]

22°
10 3

Relative Dec [mas]

1
10°

20°
230° 220° 210° 200° 220° 218° 216° 214°
0
0
RA RA

Fig. 1. IceCube skymap cutout surrounding the radio position of the

PKS 1424+240 blazar. The color scale represents the local p-value from
the 9-year maximum likelihood analysis performed by Abbasi et al.
(2022).
5
10 4

3.5 (Abbasi et al. 2022). The IceCube signal is dominated by

neutrinos with relatively low energies (. 10 TeV). The time-
0
integrated IceCube analysis is predominantly sensitive to persis- 5 0 5
tent emission. Together with off-flare VHE detections in gamma- Relative RA [mas]
rays, this motivates the study of time-independent properties of
Fig. 2. VLBA stacked image for the blazar PKS 1424+240 at 15 GHz.
PKS 1424+240. We address the question of which general prop- Stokes I is shown by contours, the first contour corresponds to three
erty of PKS 1424+240 might cause its exceptional VHE photon times the image rms level. The linear polarization intensity is presented
and neutrino fluxes. by color and the directions of EVPA by sticks. The observation dates
We used radio VLBI, which is the only technique to date of the 42 images used in the stacked image are indicated in the inset.
that is able to directly probe the sites of neutrino and gamma-ray A circular restoring beam is shown at the full width at half maximum
production by resolving structures within several parsecs from (FWHM, 0.8 mas) level in the bottom left corner. FITS files of the
the central engine. For the redshift of PKS 1424+240, the pro- stacked Stokes I, Q, and U images are available at the CDS. We also
jected angular scale of 1 mas corresponds to 6.70 pc assum- supply an animation of Stokes I cumulative stacking (available online).
ing the Komatsu et al. (2009) cosmological parameters. A quick
examination of PKS 1424+240 revealed that its jet has an ex-
Pushkarev et al. (2023). For deep CLEANing in Stokes I, Q,
ceptionally large apparent opening angle ϕapp . Pushkarev et al.
and U, we applied the algorithm with the residual entropy-
(2017) found ϕapp = 65◦ , which is among the most extreme val-
based stopping criterion developed by Homan et al. (2024).
ues observed for blazars. Geometrically, this indicates a small
The linear polarization image was corrected for Ricean bias
viewing angle θ to the line of sight, and consequently, strong
(Wardle & Kronberg 1974). We also applied a debiasing proce-
Doppler boosting. To further investigate the source, we updated
dure to the CLEAN images to effectively suppress the side-lobe
its stacked 15 GHz image by the Very Long Baseline Array
artifacts from deconvolution (Appendix B in Pushkarev et al.
(VLBA) using all available data and increasing the number of
2023).
stacked epochs by about four times. The results of our serendip-
This debiasing procedure significantly reduced imaging ar-
itous findings are presented in this paper.
tifacts, and we argue that the weak structures that are observed
around the core of PKS 1424+240 in the stacked images (Fig-
2. 15 GHz VLBA polarization imaging ure 2) represent genuine reconstructed jet emission. The northern
declination of PKS 1424+240 ensures robust VLBA uv-coverage
The Stokes I and polarization observation of PKS 1424+240 in without significant gaps. The weakly polarized emission stacks
the MOJAVE program1 (MOJAVE: Monitoring Of Jets in Active coherently over multiple epochs and is not expected to result
galactic nuclei with VLBA Experiments, see Lister et al. 2018, from residual polarization leakage effects. The reduced levels
and references therein) began in May 2009, and we report re- of detectable 15 GHz Stokes I emission northwest next to the
sults through January 2025. To increase the dynamic range of a bright core component possibly result from residual effects of
restored map, a set of single-epoch images was combined and self-calibration, which only included emission to the southeast
averaged, that is, stacked, by aligning them using the VLBI core in the self-calibration model in most individual epochs.
position derived from visibility model fitting (e.g., Lister et al. In order to check the Figure 2 Stokes I image for consistency,
2021). Stacking not only improves the sensitivity and dynamic we processed archival 1.6 GHz VLBA data for PKS 1424+240.
range, but also effectively reconstructs a more complete source See subsection A.1 for details.
morphology, particularly in the low-brightness areas. It can also
reveal the whole jet channel and not just regions of enhanced ra-
diation at a given epoch. Image stacking is beneficial for studies 3. Looking into the jet cone
of jets in Stokes I and polarized emission (e.g., Pushkarev et al. 3.1. Observational signatures and magnetic field
2017, 2023; Kovalev et al. 2020; Zobnina et al. 2023).
We made stacked maps of PKS 1424+240 in Stokes I, Q, We collected striking observational signatures of a jet that is
and U (Figure 2) using 42 available epochs that spanned ap- viewed inside its cone. The stacked Stokes I and linear polariza-
proximately 15 years, following the procedure described in tion images reveal a structure in the southeast direction, while
significant emission is also present in all other directions around
1
https://www.cv.nrao.edu/MOJAVE/ the core region in Stokes I and linear polarization (Figure 2).
Article number, page 2
 ate values are consistent with other measurements for the same
2 mas Linear polarization (mJy/beam)
source (e.g., Padovani et al. 2022; Kun & Medveczky 2023). A
20 pc median intrinsic full opening angle of the jet was estimated by
0 0.1 1 6 Pushkarev et al. (2017) to be αint = 1.2◦ for Fermi-detected
AGN in the MOJAVE sample. We assumed this value for
PKS 1424+240. Looking into the jet cone condition is defined
by the requirement for the jet viewing angle θ < αint /2. This re-
quires the Doppler factor to reach its maximum possible value
of twice the Lorentz factor, δ ≈ 2Γ.
We applied the simplified assumption that the jet is ob-
served at half of its half-opening angle, θ = αint /4. This
agrees with simulations by Pashchenko et al. (in prep.). We
also assumed a relation between αint and Γ, as deduced ob-
servationally by Pushkarev et al. (2017) and predicted by hy-
drodynamical and magnetic acceleration models of relativis-
tic jets (Blandford & Königl 1979; Komissarov et al. 2007;
Clausen-Brown et al. 2013). As a result, we found that the fol-
lowing set of parameters for a basic relativistic jet model is con-
sistent with the above values and considerations: Γ = 16 (plasma
flow speed β = 0.998), αint = 1.2◦ , θ = 0.3◦ , βapp = 2.8, and a
Doppler factor δ = 32. The Lorentz factor is within its typical
values from MOJAVE population modeling (Lister et al. 2019),
as expected from the chosen conservative parameter assump-
tions. The Doppler factor is three times higher than the median
Fig. 3. “Eye of Sauron”. Stacked VLBA linear polarization image with values for the MOJAVE sample (Lister et al. 2021; Homan et al.
the magnetic field direction incorporated by linear integral convolution. 2021), which agrees with recent findings of Plavin et al. (2025)
The circular restoring beam is shown at the FWHM level of 0.8 mas in for neutrino-selected blazars. We note that the Γ and δ estimates
the bottom left corner. are not highly sensitive to the exact value of θ as long as the line
of sight remains within the jet cone. For the assumed jet viewing
angle in the range 0.1◦ < θ < 1.0◦ and with the measured βapp
This even extends to deprojected kiloparsec scales (see Fig-
values, the Doppler factors lie within the range 52 > δ > 16.
ure A.1). Furthermore, the stacked polarization image exhibits
Although the geometric probability of a near-zero viewing an-
a remarkably uniform distribution of electric vector position an-
gle is low, the fraction of such jets in VLBI flux density-selected
gle (EVPA); it presents a pattern of diverging rays that start from
samples has been shown to be on the order of a few percent due
the core. The rotation measure results obtained from 15, 24, and
to the Doppler bias (Lister et al. 2019).
43 GHz VLBA images are presented in subsection A.2. Because
the rotation measure is low and the variation very weak, we as- Because of the strong projection effects and synchrotron
sume that the jet is propagating toward the observer. This reduces opacity, the jet is expected to become visible many parsecs
the density of the interstellar medium along its path. The low jet downstream from its true base. As a result, its observed ra-
speeds observed by VLBI (subsection 3.2) are consistent with a dio core appears to be less active and variable than typically
small jet viewing angle, θ. expected for highly boosted blazars. Moreover, the core and
jet emission are superimposed, which results in a significant
We reconstructed the magnetic field structure by implement- underestimation of the intrinsic core brightness temperature.
ing a 90◦ EVPA rotation in the entire map. This assumes that This in turn led to an incorrect estimate of the jet parame-
neither RM nor relativistic effects significantly affect the ob- ters in Homan et al. (2021). A moderate flare occurred in the
served projected magnetic field direction (see subsection A.2 and core of PKS 1424+240 during 2019–2020. The core flux den-
Lyutikov et al. 2005). The results are shown in Figure 3. We call sity reached 0.27 Jy, while the median value over all epochs was
the image (after J. R. R. Tolkien) “the Eye of Sauron” because its 0.18 Jy. It did not affect these estimates significantly.
nature is striking and resembles the illustrator’s (Alan Lee) views
of the villain in the “Lord of the Rings”. Linear integral convo-
lution (LIC; Cabral & Leedom 1993) was applied to the polar-
ized intensity to visualize the morphology of the magnetic field 4. Emission of high-energy photons and neutrinos:
lines by locally blurring the intensity variations in the direction Relativistic beaming
of the magnetic field to effectively trace its structure. The im- The Doppler factor crisis describes the contradiction between
age reveals a significant toroidal magnetic field component of a the short timescale of the variability in the blazar high-energy
current-carrying jet that flows almost directly toward Earth. This emission and the low estimates of the Doppler factor for VHE
is consistent with the widely discussed overall helical magnetic blazars (e.g., Lyutikov & Lister 2010). The apparent VLBI speed
field structure (Blandford et al. 2019). for VHE blazars is observed to be typically lower than 2–3c
(Piner & Edwards 2018). We propose a partial solution of this
3.2. Basic jet parameters problem by linking the low apparent speed with a very small jet
viewing angle. Our observations suggest that the Doppler factors
Lister et al. (2021) have measured apparent kinematics of two inferred from VHE and radio observations may be consistent and
robust components in the emission of PKS 1424+240. Their do not require different sites for these emissions.
apparent speed, measured in units of the speed of light, is We note that the explanation of the VHE gamma-ray flux
βapp,1 = 2.83 ± 0.89 and βapp,2 = 1.91 ± 0.18. These moder- within a leptohadronic model of Cerruti et al. (2017) required a
Article number, page 3
 A&A proofs: manuscript no. output

Doppler factor of ∼ 30, which is consistent with our observa- only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous
tions. The expected associated neutrino flux approximately the ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsweb.
flux inferred from IceCube observations. The neutrino produc- u-strasbg.fr/cgi-bin/qcat?J/A+A/.
tion in the blazar radio core may proceed through the pγ mecha- Acknowledgements. We thank Andrei Lobanov, Yannis Liodakis, and Tigran Ar-
nism that was adopted by Plavin et al. (2021) and Kalashev et al. shakian for productive discussions and comments on the manuscript. This work
(2023) to explain TeV to PeV neutrino production. Energetic is part of the MuSES project which has received funding from the European Re-
protons, which are required for the neutrino (and in the hadronic search Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and
Innovation Programme (grant agreement No 101142396). The rotation measure
scenarios, gamma-ray production) may be accelerated either analysis by JDL is supported by the M2FINDERS project, which has received
in the vicinity of the central black hole (Ptitsyna & Neronov funding from the ERC under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and
2016) or at the border surface between the fast spine and the innovation programme (grant agreement No 101018682). AVP is a postdoctoral
slower sheath in the jet (e.g., Tavecchio & Ghisellini 2015). In fellow at the Black Hole Initiative, which is funded by grants from the John
any case, the specific geometry of the jet in PKS 1424+240, Templeton Foundation (grants 60477, 61479, 62286) and the Gordon and Betty
Moore Foundation (grant GBMF-8273). The work of SVT is supported in the
which is closely aligned to the line of sight, provides an addi- framework of the State project “Science” by the Ministry of Science and Higher
tional Doppler enhancement of its multiwavelength and multi- Education of the Russian Federation under the contract 075-15-2024-541. The
messenger fluxes. This boosting makes the object persistently opinions expressed in this work are those of the authors and do not necessarily
bright and maintains a high average flux, which places it among reflect the views of these Foundations. The National Radio Astronomy Observa-
tory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative
the top 1% of gamma-ray sources (Ballet et al. 2023). It is also agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. This research has made use of the
the brightest blazar in terms of high-energy neutrino emission NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database, which is funded by the National Aeronau-
(Abbasi et al. 2022). Future observations of this and other VHE tics and Space Administration and operated by the California Institute of Tech-
emitting blazars are needed to pave the way for a quantitative nology. This research made use of the data from the MOJAVE database main-
tained by the MOJAVE team (Lister et al. 2018).
model of neutrino production in jets, and to better understand
the role of beaming in the gamma-ray emission.

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Article number, page 4
 Ipeak = 306.1, Inoise = 0.04 mJy/bm, and Icont = 0.10 [x2.0 steps] mJy/bm
Appendix A: Supporting observational material
1424+240, 2017-05-09, VLBA 1.6 GHz
A.1. VLBA data at 1.6 GHz 10 1

We have processed 1.6 GHz VLBA observations of

PKS 1424+240, epoch 9 May 2017, experiment code BS257A. 50
10 2
At ten times lower frequency, the VLBA is substantially more

Relative Dec [mas]

sensitive to distant optically thin jet emission and probes

Stokes I Intensity [Jy/bm]

angular scales ten times larger than our MOJAVE stacked
10 3
image. With a total on-source time of about 3 hr, these single 0
epoch low-frequency observations reach a high dynamic range
of about 7,000:1 and confirm the emission around the VLBI
core, including the North-West direction (Figure A.1). We note
that our stacked image at 24 GHz also detects this emission 10 4

(Figure A.2). 50 0
10 4

A.2. Rotation Measure at 15, 24, and 43 GHz

Between August 2019 and June 2021, the MOJAVE monitor- 50 0 50
ing conducted monthly 15 GHz, 24 GHz, and 43 GHz band po- Relative RA [mas]
larimetric observations of 25 AGN (including PKS 1424+240),
totaling 23 epochs, in order to measure the rotation measure Fig. A.1. 1.6 GHz VLBA image of PKS 1424+240, epoch 9 May 2017.
A circular restoring beam is shown in the left bottom corner at the
(RM; full results will be presented by Livingston and the MO- FWHM level of 8.17 mas. The image supports the viewing angle being
JAVE team, in prep.). In Figure A.2 we show the mean RM of less than a half-opening angle even at large (kiloparsec, deprojected)
PKS 1424+240 across the two years of observations. This ob- spatial scales probed by the low-frequency observations. Stokes I im-
ject is one of the lowest in total magnitude of observed RM age FITS file is is available at the CDS.
for its core, with a median magnitude across all epochs of
302 ± 108 rad m−2 , compared to a population median magnitude 1000
of 1026 ± 475 rad m−2 . We also note that the median pixel-by- 1424+240, 23 Epoch RM Stack, VLBA 15/24/43 GHz
MOJAVE Program
pixel standard deviation of RM for the core is 514 ± 57 rad m−2 , 750
making it larger than the median magnitude of RM for the core. 5
Interestingly, across the two years, the core of PKS 1424+240 500
does not vary greatly in the magnitude of RM, sitting in the
Relative Dec [mas]

bottom 25th percentile of time variability of sources. However, 250

the jet of PKS 1424+240 has a time variability of RM similar to

RM [radm 2]
other sources within the sample. We also detect frequency de- 0 0
pendent depolarization, which is typical of most sources within
our sample. This combined with the low magnitude RM suggests
that the Faraday rotation that we do see is external to the jet. 250
As RM data is not available for all 42 epochs used in Fig-
ure 2 and individual epochs do not have RM data for the full jet 500
region, we cannot apply a precise correction for the Faraday ef- 5
fect on EVPA. The median magnitude of RM for PKS 1424+240 750
corresponds to a EVPA rotation of ∼ 6◦ , which is comparable to
our EVPA errors from calibration and imaging. 1000
The low magnitude and variability of RM especially close to 5 0 5
the core of PKS 1424+240 are indicative of either a weak mag- Relative RA [mas]
netic field or low thermal electron density along the line of sight.
Fig. A.2. Stacked mean RM map of 15/24/43 GHz VLBA data for
We may be seeing the ‘sweeping away’ of the magneto-ionic PKS 1424+240 in the frame of the observer across 23 epochs from
medium, this would result in a reduction in the magnitude of 15 August 2019 to 25 June 2021 in color scale. The contours show the
RM. This effect would be more prominent within the center of mean 24 GHz Stokes I; the first contour corresponds to 3× the image
the jet, while the edges would be less affected, which is sup- rms level, with contours increasing by a factor of 2. The grey circle in-
ported by the magnitude and variability of RM being typical of dicates the FWHM level of the circular restoring beam. The map shows
other sources for the jet region of PKS 1424+240. the magnitude of RM is low and similar across the source.

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