THE VARIABILITY PATTERN AND PREDICTION OF THE QUASAR 3C 273 FLUX DENSITY VARIATIONS IN THE RADIO BAND

We present results of the analysis of the extragalactic radio source 3C 273 flux density variations, which was performed on the basis of the monitoring data obtained at the University of Michigan Radio Astronomy Observatory over the period of 37 years (1974-2011). Despite the large number of papers dedicated to the study of this radio source, this monitoring is unique and has no analogues. Using complementary methods of wavelet analysis and the singular spectrum analysis we found the properties of variability, which are not described before. The presence of long-term variability components in the interval of similar to 7.2-8.3 years was detected in the 3C 273 flux density variations. We detected the presence of short-term components in the time interval of similar to 2-3.9 years, when excluding the long-term component. The temporal variations of the short-term component of wavelet spectrum at 14.5 GHz were compared to the spatial variations in the 3C 273 jet (using the Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry monitoring data at 15.4 GHz by the MOJAVE program).