Very long baseline polarimetric monitoring at 15 GHz of the TeV blazar Markarian 421

Thanks to high resolution radio observations it is possible to obtain a direct imaging of the innermost regions of Active Galactic Nuclei; in particular, it is possible to investigate about the jet's morphology and any proper motions, and the time evolution of physical parameters, such as flux densities and spectral index. Furthermore, with the study of the polarization properties, it is possible to obtain important information about the magnetic field structure and the emission mechanisms. In this work we present recent results about the nearby (z=0.031) TeV blazar Mrk 421. We analyzed data obtained with the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA),both in total and polarized intensity, at twelve epochs (one observation per month from January to December 2011) at 15, 24 and 43 GHz, in the context of a broadband campaign from the radio to gamma-ray. We investigate the inner jet structure on parsec scale through the study of model-fit components for each epoch. At these frequencies the source shows a compact (about 0.13 mas, or 0.08 pc) and bright component, with a one sided jet detected out to about 10 mas. All model-fit components in the jet appear to be almost stationary during our observation period, and the spectral index is fairly flat in the core region and steepens along the jet's length. In particular, we present a preliminary study of the polarization properties for the 15 GHz dataset: we found a degree of polarization of ∼ 1% for the core region and for the C3 component, at near 1 mas from the core, we found a value of near 14%. © Owned by the authors, published by EDP Sciences, 2013.