'Astronomical Society of the Pacific Conference Series'
Abstract
We present the results of the first systematic study of variability in the X-ray emission from the 'superluminal' quasar 3C 345. Its power-law 1-keV X-ray emission varies by a factor of two on a timescale of years, but with no change in spectral index, closely following the high-frequency
radio flux. Using VLBI images, we show that one of the superluminal 'knots' in the jet (at a distance of ≈ 15 pc from the nucleus), rather than the nucleus, produces most of the observed X-rays, via the synchrotron self-Compton process. We show that this knot accelerates as it moves away from the nucleus, along along a path at ≈ 10° from the line of sight
