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In this paper, we introduce a new algorithm for estimating non‐negative parameters from Poisson observations of a linear transformation of the parameters. The proposed objective function fits both a weighted least squares (WLS) and a minimum χ2 estimation framework, and results in a convex optimization problem. Unlike conventional WLS methods, the weights do not need to be estimated from the datas, but are incorporated in the objective function. The iterative algorithm is derived from an alternating projection procedure in which "distance" is determined by the chi‐squared test statistic, which is interpreted as a measure of the discrepancy between two distributions. This may be viewed as an alternative to the Kullback‐Leibler divergence which corresponds to the maximum likelihood (ML) estimation. The algorithm is similar in form to, and shares many properties with, the expectation maximization algorithm for ML estimation. In particular, we show that every limit point of the algorithm is an estimator, and the sequence of projected (by the linear transformation into the data space) means converge. Despite the similarities, we show that the new estimators are quite distinct from ML estimators, and obtain conditions under which they are identical.

We present RadioAstron Space VLBI imaging observations of the BL Lac object S5 0716+71 made on 2015 January 3-4 at a frequency of 22 GHz (wavelength λ = 1.3 cm). The observations were made in the framework of the AGN Polarization Key Science Program. The source was detected on projected space-ground baselines up to 70,833 km (5.6 Earth diameters) for both parallel-hand and cross-hand interferometric visibilities. We have used these detections to obtain a full-polarimetric image of the blazar at an unprecedented angular resolution of 24 μas, the highest for this source to date. This enabled us to estimate the size of the radio core to be 2.2 × 1013 K for the blazar core. This implies that the inverse-Compton limit must be violated in the rest frame of the source, even for the largest Doppler factor δ ∼ 25 reported for 0716+714. © 2020. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved. ; We thank the anonymous referee for useful comments which helped to improve the manuscript. The authors are grateful to Uwe Bach for providing measurements of the absolute EVPA orientation obtained at Effelsberg. E.V.K. acknowledges support from the Italian Space Agency under contract ASIINAF 2015-023-R.O. J.L.G. and A.F. were supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness grants AYA2013-40825-P and AYA2016-80889-P. Y.Y.K. was supported by the government of the Russian Federation (agreement 05.Y09.21.0018) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. G.B. acknowledges financial support under the INTEGRAL ASI-INAF agreement 2013-025.R01. The RadioAstron project is led by the Astro Space Center of the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Lavochkin Scientific and Production Association under a contract with the State Space Corporation ROSCOSMOS, in collaboration with partner organizations in Russia and other countries. Results of optical positioning measurements of the Spektr-R spacecraft by the global MASTER Robotic Net (Lipunov et al. 2010), ISON collaboration, and Kourovka observatory were used for spacecraft orbit determination in addition to mission facilities. This research has made use of data from the MOJAVE database that is maintained by the MOJAVE team (Lister et al. 2018). This study makes use of 43 GHz VLBA data from the VLBA-BU Blazar Monitoring Program (VLBA-BU-BLAZAR), funded by NASA through the Fermi Guest Investigator grants, the most recent 80NSSC17K0649. The VLBA is an instrument of the Long Baseline Observatory. The Long Baseline Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated by Associated Universities, Inc. This publication makes use of data obtained at the Metsähovi Radio Observatory, operated by the Aalto University. This work is partly based on observations carried out using the 100 m telescope of the MPIfR (MaxPlanck-Institute for Radio Astronomy) at Effelsberg, the Noto telescope operated by INAF—Istituto di Radioastronomia and the 32 m radio telescope operated by Torun Centre for Astronomy of Nicolaus Copernicus University in Torun (Poland) and supported by the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education SpUB grant. The European VLBI Network is a joint facility of independent European, African, Asian, and North American radio astronomy institutes. Scientific results from data presented in this publication are derived from the following global VLBI project code: GL041. Facilities: RadioAstron Space Radio Telescope (Spektr-R), VLBA, Green Bank 100 m radio telescope, Sheshan 25 m radio telescope (Shangai), EVN, Effelsberg 100 m radio telescope, Noto 32 m radio telescope. Software: AIPS (Greisen 2003), Difmap (Pearson et al. 1994), ROOT framework (Antcheva et al. 2009). ; Peer reviewed

Open Access article, published by EDP Sciences, under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.-- Open Access funding provided by Max Planck Society. ; Context Detailed studies of relativistic jets in active galactic nuclei (AGN) require high-fidelity imaging at the highest possible resolution. This can be achieved using very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) at radio frequencies, combining worldwide (global) VLBI arrays of radio telescopes with a space-borne antenna on board a satellite. Aims. We present multiwavelength images made of the radio emission in the powerful quasar S5 0836+710, obtained using a global VLBI array and the antenna Spektr-R of the RadioAstron mission of the Russian Space Agency, with the goal of studying the internal structure and physics of the relativistic jet in this object. Methods. The RadioAstron observations at wavelengths of 18 cm, 6 cm, and 1.3 cm are part of the Key Science Program for imaging radio emission in strong AGN. The internal structure of the jet is studied by analyzing transverse intensity profiles and modeling the structural patterns developing in the flow. Results. The RadioAstron images reveal a wealth of structural detail in the jet of S5 0836+710 on angular scales ranging from 0.02 mas to 200 mas. Brightness temperatures in excess of 1013 K are measured in the jet, requiring Doppler factors of 100 for reconciling them with the inverse Compton limit. Several oscillatory patterns are identified in the ridge line of the jet and can be explained in terms of the Kelvin Helmholtz (KH) instability. The oscillatory patterns are interpreted as the surface and body wavelengths of the helical mode of the KH instability. The interpretation provides estimates of the jet Mach number and of the ratio of the jet to the ambient density, which are found to be Mj 12 and 0:33. The ratio of the jet to the ambient density should be conservatively considered an upper limit because its estimate relies on approximations. © L. Vega-García et al. 2020 ; L.V.G. is a member of the International Max Planck Research School (IMPRS) for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Universities of Bonn and Cologne. The RadioAstron project is led by the Astro Space Center of the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Lavochkin Scientific and Production Association under a contract with the State Space Corporation ROSCOSMOS, in collaboration with partner organizations in Russia and other countries. This research is based on observations correlated at the Bonn Correlator, jointly operated by the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy (MPIfR), and the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy (BKG). The European VLBI Network is a joint facility of European, Chinese, South African and other radio astronomy institutes funded by their national research councils. The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. Thanks to Phillip Edwards and Alan Roy for the useful comments about the paper. M.P. has been supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (grants AYA2015-66899-C2-1-P and AYA2016-77237-C3-3-P) and the Generalitat Valenciana (grant PROMETEOII/2014/069). This work was partially supported by the COST Action MP0904 Black Holes in a Violent Universe. G.B. acknowledges financial support under the INTEGRAL ASI-INAF agreement 2013-025-R.1. T.S. was supported by the Academy of Finland projects 274477, 284495, and 312496. I.A. acknowledges support by a Ramon y Cajal grant of the Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad (MINECO) of Spain. The research at the IAA-CSIC was partly supported by the MINECO through grants AYA2016-80889-P, AYA2013-40825-P, and AYA2010-14844. Y.Y.K. was supported in part by the government of the Russian Federation (agreement 05.Y09.21.0018) and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. ; Peer reviewed

We present Space-VLBI RadioAstron observations at 1.6 GHz and 4.8 GHz of the flat spectrum radio quasar 3C 273, with detections on baselines up to 4.5 and 3.3 Earth Diameters, respectively. Achieving the best angular resolution at 1.6 GHz to date, we have imaged limb-brightening in the jet, not previously detected in this source. In contrast, at 4.8 GHz, we detected emission from a central stream of plasma, with a spatial distribution complementary to the limb-brightened emission, indicating an origin in the spine of the jet. While a stratification across the jet width in the flow density, internal energy, magnetic field, or bulk flow velocity are usually invoked to explain the limb-brightening, the different jet structure detected at the two frequencies probably requires a stratification in the emitting electron energy distribution. Future dedicated numerical simulations will allow the determination of which combination of physical parameters are needed to reproduce the spine-sheath structure observed by Space-VLBI with RadioAstron in 3C 273. © ESO 2021. ; JLG and AF acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (grants AYA2016-80889-P, PID2019-108995GB-C21), the Consejeria de Economia, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad of the Junta de Andalucia (grant P18-FR-1769), the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (grant 2019AEP112), and the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa award for the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (SEV-2017-0709). APL, YYK, and ABP were supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project 20-62-46021). TS was partly supported by the Academy of Finland projects 274477 and 315721. MP acknowledges the support by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (MICINN) under grant PID2019-105510GB-C31. MP and JMM acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science through Grants PID2019-107427GB-C33 and AYA2016-77237-C3-3-P, and from the Generalitat Valenciana through grant PROMETEU/2019/071. JMA was supported by the German Research Foundation grant HE5937/2-2. LIG acknowledges support by the CSIRO Distinguished Visitor Programme. The RadioAstron project is led by the Astro Space Center of the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Lavochkin Scientific and Production Association under a contract with the Roscosmos State Corporation, in collaboration with partner organizations in Russia and other countries. This publication has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 730562 [RadioNet]. ; Peer reviewed

Funding Information: We thank the anonymous referee for useful comments. JLG and AF acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad (grants AYA2016-80889-P, PID2019-108995GBC21), the Consejeria de Economia, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad of the Junta de Andalucia (grant P18-FR-1769), the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas (grant 2019AEP112), and the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa award for the Instituto de Astrofisica de Andalucia (SEV-2017-0709). APL, YYK, and ABP were supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project 20-62-46021). TS was partly supported by the Academy of Finland projects 274477 and 315721. MP acknowledges the support by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (MICINN) under grant PID2019-105510GB-C31. MP and JMM acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science through Grants PID2019-107427GB-C33 and AYA2016-77237-C3-3-P, and from the Generalitat Valenciana through grant PROMETEU/2019/071. JMA was supported by the German Research Foundation grant HE5937/2-2. LIG acknowledges support by the CSIRO Distinguished Visitor Programme. Funding Information: Acknowledgements. We thank the anonymous referee for useful comments. JLG and AF acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (grants AYA2016-80889-P, PID2019-108995GB-C21), the Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad of the Junta de Andalucía (grant P18-FR-1769), the Consejo Superior de Investi-gaciones Científicas (grant 2019AEP112), and the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa award for the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709). APL, YYK, and ABP were supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project 20-62-46021). TS was partly supported by the Academy of Finland projects 274477 and 315721. MP acknowledges the support by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MICINN) under grant PID2019-105510GB-C31. MP and JMM acknowledge financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Science through Grants PID2019-107427GB-C33 and AYA2016-77237-C3-3-P, and from the Generali-tat Valenciana through grant PROMETEU/2019/071. JMA was supported by the German Research Foundation grant HE5937/2-2. LIG acknowledges support by the CSIRO Distinguished Visitor Programme. The RadioAstron project is led by the Astro Space Center of the Lebedev Physical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Lavochkin Scientific and Production Association under a contract with the Roscosmos State Corporation, in collaboration with partner organizations in Russia and other countries. This publication has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 730562 [RadioNet]. This paper includes data observed with the 100-m Effelsberg radio-telescope, which is operated by the Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie in Bonn (Germany). The National Radio Astronomy Observatory is a facility of the National Science Foundation operated under cooperative agreement by Associated Universities, Inc. The European VLBI Network is a joint facility of independent European, African, Asian, and North American radio astronomy institutes. The Long Baseline Array is part of the Australia Telescope National Facility which is funded by the Australian Government for operation as a National Facility managed by CSIRO. This research made use of Python (http://www.python.org), Numpy (van der Walt et al. 2011), Pandas (McKinney 2010), and Matplotlib (Hunter 2007). We also made use of Astropy Publisher Copyright: © ESO 2021. ; We present Space-VLBI RadioAstron observations at 1.6 GHz and 4.8 GHz of the flat spectrum radio quasar 3C 273, with detections on baselines up to 4.5 and 3.3 Earth Diameters, respectively. Achieving the best angular resolution at 1.6 GHz to date, we have imaged limb-brightening in the jet, not previously detected in this source. In contrast, at 4.8 GHz, we detected emission from a central stream of plasma, with a spatial distribution complementary to the limb-brightened emission, indicating an origin in the spine of the jet. While a stratification across the jet width in the flow density, internal energy, magnetic field, or bulk flow velocity are usually invoked to explain the limb-brightening, the different jet structure detected at the two frequencies probably requires a stratification in the emitting electron energy distribution. Future dedicated numerical simulations will allow the determination of which combination of physical parameters are needed to reproduce the spine-sheath structure observed by Space-VLBI with RadioAstron in 3C 273. ; Peer reviewed