S5 0716+714 VLBI K- and Q-band variability

DOI

This study aims to search for the existence of intraday variability (IDV) of BL Lac object S5 0716+714 at high radio frequencies for which the interstellar scintillation effect is not significant. Using the 21-m radio telescope of the Korean VLBI Network (KVN), we present results of multi-epoch simultaneous dual-frequency radio observations. Single-dish observations of S5 0716+714 were simultaneously conducted at 21.7GHz (K-band) and 42.4GHz (Q-band), with a high cadence of 30-60min intervals. We observed four epochs between December 2009 and June 2010. Over the whole set of observation epochs, S5 0716+714 showed significant inter-month variations in flux density at both the K- and Q-bands, with modulation indices of approximately 19% for the K-band and approximately 36% for the Q-band. In all epochs, no clear intraday variability was detected at either frequency. The source shows monotonic flux density increase in epochs 1 and 3 and monotonic flux density decrease in epochs 2 and 4. In the flux density increasing phases, the flux densities at the Q-band increase more rapidly. In the decreasing phase, no significant flux density difference is seen at the two frequencies. The situation could be different close to flux density peaks that we did not witness in our observations. We find an inverted spectrum with mean spectral indices, {bar}{alpha}(S_{nu}_{prop.to}{nu}^-{alpha}^), of -0.57+/-0.13 in epoch 1 and -0.15+/-0.11 in epoch 3. On the other hand, we find relatively steep indices of +0.24+/-0.14 and +0.17+/-0.18 in epochs 2 and 4, respectively. We conclude that the frequency dependence of the variability and the change of the spectral index are caused by source-intrinsic effects rather than by any extrinsic scintillation effect.

Identifier
DOI http://doi.org/10.26093/cds/vizier.36010012
Source https://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/lp/custom/CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/601/A12
Related Identifier https://cdsarc.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/cat/J/A+A/601/A12
Related Identifier http://vizier.cds.unistra.fr/viz-bin/VizieR-2?-source=J/A+A/601/A12
Metadata Access http://dc.g-vo.org/rr/q/pmh/pubreg.xml?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=oai_b2find&identifier=ivo://CDS.VizieR/J/A+A/601/A12
Provenance
Creator Lee J.W.; Sohn B.W.; Byun D.-Y.; Lee J.A.; Kim S.S.
Publisher CDS
Publication Year 2017
Rights https://cds.unistra.fr/vizier-org/licences_vizier.html
OpenAccess true
Contact CDS support team <cds-question(at)unistra.fr>
Representation
Resource Type Dataset; AstroObjects
Discipline Astrophysics and Astronomy; Cosmology; Galactic and extragalactic Astronomy; Natural Sciences; Observational Astronomy; Physics