EGRET活动星系核的VLBI观测研究

EGRET空间望远镜已检测到66颗高置信度的γ射线活动星系核，这些活动星系核都是射电强的，具有很高的光度，迅速的光学变化，有相当的比例是视超光速源，对γ射线 活动星系核的研究是目前世界上最活跃的前沿课题之一，为了完备EGRET活动是系统核的射电观测图像样本，以便进行更可信的统计研究，对一些缺少射电图像观测的EGRET活动量的核进行了多历元的VLBI和VLA的观测研究，得到了它们的射电结构图像。     

ROSAT选射电源的性质：Ⅰ.样本

ＲＯＳＡＴ卫星的全天巡天观测到了一大批射电星系和各种活动星核,为我们研究这些活动性剧烈的河外天体的辐射机制、多波段辐射相关性以及各类星系核之间的演化联系提供了重要数据。通过将ＲＯＳＡＴ全天巡天观测与ＰＭＮ射电（５ＧＨｚ）巡天观测进行交叉证认,我们得到了６４２颗天射电源。对这些对应体随后进行的光学证认构建了一个星系和活动星系核的大样本。其中３１１个对应体（占５２％）被过去的光学观测证实为河外天体（包     

坦谱射电源PKS 0528 134中γ射线爆发和毫米波射电爆发的演化关系

在１９９１—１９９３年期间,Ｃｏｍｐｔｏｎγ射线天文台（ＣＧＲＯ）在射电源ＰＫＳ０５２８＋１３４中观测到两次很强的射线爆发,都伴随有毫米波射电大爆发．本文详细分析了高能γ－Ｘ射线波段和红外－光学波段的辐射能量分布（ＳＥＤ）．结果表明,高能γ射线辐射可能主要是由喷流相对论电子对周围ＵＶ－软Ｘ射线光子的逆康普顿散射所产生的．同时,通过毫米波射电大爆发的频谱演化特性与γ射线源的同步辐射频谱特性的比较,对γ辐射等离子团和射电等离子团之间可能的演化联系作了讨论．     

BL Lac 天体的γ射线辐射

活动星系核的γ射线辐射机制仍然是一个待解决的问题,BLLac天体是活动星系核的一类。文中选取了22个BLLac天体,用它们的最大值、最小值和平均值研究了在1GeV处γ射线辐射与射电8.4GHz处辐射之间可能存在的关系。主要结果如下:对于最小值而言,γ射线辐射与射电辐射流量密度之间没有相关性存在;对于最大值和平均值而言,它们的流量密度之间有较好的线性相关性;γ射线辐射与射电辐射谱指数之间也有相关性存在。根据研究结果,我们认为γ射线辐射机制主要是同步自康普顿辐射。     

活动星系核连续谱辐射

连续谱辐射是研究活动星系核结构主要手段之一，谱型，光变，偏振是表征连续谱性质的最主要内容，活动星系是的最主要特征是几乎覆盖了整个电磁波波段，且有着大幅度和快速时标的光变，主要评述了活动星系核从射电到γ射线的全波段性质，观测对活动星系结构核的物理限制及现存的物理模型和解释，并指出了将来的课题。     

X射线选射电噪活动星系核的多波段性质(英文)

基于被ROSAT全天区巡天观测和射电 4.85GHz巡天观测同时探测到的活动星系核的大样本 ,研究了X射线选的射电噪活动星系核的多波段性质 .通过分析该样本中的活动星系核的宽波段能量分布 ,确认了来自射电、光学和X射线波段的辐射光度之间的显著相关性 .这种相关性对于类星体、赛弗特、蝎虎座天体和射电星系是有区别的 .同时 ,探讨了从光学到X射线波段之间的谱指数与红移以及 50 0 0 和 4.85GHz处的单色光度的相关性     

致密射电核

活动星系统的多波段观测和研究，早已成为天体物理学最热门的前沿之一。在射电天文学中，按其观测形态又常将ＡＧＮ和致密射电核等同看待。对ＡＮＧ及ＣＲＣ的含义、分类、总的频谱特征、射电结构和射电性质，模型研究及ＶＬＢＩ的重要作用、最新的观测结果、问题和前景作一评述。评述中将侧重于用射电天文手段观测研究ＣＲＣ的结果。     

X线选射电噪活动星系核的多波段性质

基于被ROSAT全天区巡天观测和射电4．85GHz巡天观测同时探测到的活动星系核的大样本,研究了X射线选的射电噪活动星系核的多波段性质．通过分析该样本中的活动星系核的宽波段能量分布,确认了来自射电、光学和X射线波段的辐射光度之间的显著相关性．这种相关性对于类星体、赛弗特、蝎虎座天体和射电星系是有区别的．同时,探讨了从光学到X射线波段之间的谱指数与红移以及5000A和4．85GHz处的单色光度的相关性．     

射电星系的中央引擎和统一模型研究

正活动星系核是一类存在着剧烈物理过程的天体,从射电到高能辐射的全电磁波段都有均匀辐射,这使得它成为各个波段探测的重要对象.活动星系核的高光度使得我们能够对高红移天体的光谱进行细致研究.因此,研究活动星系核对于理解星系的形成、结构和演化有重要意义.目前,活动星系核的研究已经成为现代天体物理研究的热点之一.活动星系核中大约有10%是射电噪的,伴随着相对论性喷流.射电星系根据形态的不同可以分     

射电活动星系核中盘与喷流联系

本文收集了射电源表１Ｊｙ,Ｓ４ ,Ｓ５ 中的活动星系核的宽发射线数据,发现射电活动星系核的宽发射线与５ＧＨｚ 射电辐射强相关。ＢＬＬａｃ 天体具有较弱的宽发射线辐射,但具有与其它活动星系核类似的统计行为。结果表明射电活动星系核中的喷流与吸积过程存在本质联系。     

High-resolution radio observations of Seyfert galaxies in the extended 12-μm sample – I. The observations

We present 8.4-GHz VLA A-configuration observations of 87 sources from the mid-infrared-selected AGN sample of Rush et al. These 0.25-arcsec-resolution observations allow elongated radio structures tens of pc in size to be resolved, and enable radio components smaller than 3.5 arcsec to be isolated from diffuse galactic disc emission. When combined with previous data, matched radio observations covering 90 per cent of the sample have been collected, and these represent the largest subarcsecond–resolution radio imaging survey of a homogeneously selected sample of Seyfert galaxies to date.
We use our observations to identify five radio-loud AGN in the sample. The nature of the radio emission from Seyfert nuclei will be discussed in subsequent papers.     

Multi-Frequency Studies of Intrinsic Intraday Variability

Intraday variability is detected in Blazars throughout the electromagnetic spectrum. Only radio emission is affected by interstellar scintillation. The characteristics of variability observed at different frequencies are often similar and suggest that intrinsic variations also contribute to the changes detected in the radio wavelength regime. This in turn implies very high brightness temperatures. Unambiguous signatures of scintillation and of intrinsic changes have been identified. The properties of intrinsic variations are reviewed to illustrate their potential contribution to variability in the radio domain. Such intrinsic changes need to be discriminated against when studying scintillation in quasars and BL Lac objects. Observations of scintillating sources and of sources with significant intrinsic IDV suggest interesting modifications to the standard paradigm of AGN. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Noise characteristics of full-disc helioseismic observations made by resonant scattering spectrometers

We report monitoring observations of 20 high-luminosity active galactic nuclei (AGN), 12 of which are radio-quiet quasars (RQQs). Intranight optical variability (INOV) was detected for 13 of the 20 objects, including 5 RQQs. The variations are distinctly stronger and more frequent for blazars than for the other AGN classes. By combining these data with results obtained earlier in our programme, we have formed an enlarged sample consisting of 9 BL Lacs, 19 RQQs and 11 lobe-dominated radio-loud quasars (RLQs). The moderate level of rapid optical variability found for both RQQs and radio lobe-dominated quasars (LDQs) argues against a direct link between INOV and radio loudness. We supplemented the present observations of 3 BL Lacs with additional data from the literature. In this extended sample of 12 well observed BL Lacs, stronger INOV is found for the EGRET detected subset.     

MAMBO observations at 240 GHz of optically obscured Spitzer sources: source clumps and radio activity at high redshift

Optically very faint  ( R > 25.5)  sources detected by the Spitzer Space Telescope at 24 μm represent a very interesting population at redshift   z ∼ (1.5–3)  . They exhibit strong clustering properties, implying that they are hosted by very massive haloes, and their mid-infrared emission could be powered by either dust-enshrouded star formation and/or by an obscured active galactic nucleus (AGN). We report observations carried out with the Max Planck Millimetre Bolometer (MAMBO) array at the IRAM 30-m antenna on Pico Veleta of a candidate protocluster with five optically obscured sources selected from the 24-μm Spitzer sample of the First-Look Survey. Interestingly, these sources appear to lie on a high-density filament aligned with the two radio jets of an AGN. Four out of five of the observed sources were detected. We combine these measurements with optical, infrared and radio observations to probe the nature of the candidate protocluster members. Our preliminary conclusions can be summarized as follows: the spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of all sources include both AGN and starburst contributions; the AGN contribution to the bolometric luminosities ranges between 14 and 26 per cent of the total. Such a contribution is enough for the AGN to dominate the emission at 5.8, 8 and 24 μm, while the stellar component, inferred from SED fitting, prevails at 1.25 mm and at  λ < 4.5 μ  m. The present analysis suggests a coherent interplay at high z between extended radio activity and the development of filamentary large-scale structures.     

The contribution of unresolved radio-loud AGN to the extragalactic diffuse gamma-ray background

We present a calculation of the blazar contribution to the extragalactic diffuse γ -ray background (EGRB) in the EGRET energy range. Our model is based on inverse-Compton scattering as the dominant γ -ray production process in the jets of flat spectrum radio quasars (FSRQs) and BL Lac objects, and on the unification scheme of radio-loud AGN. According to this picture, blazars represent the beamed fraction of the Fanaroff–Riley radio galaxies (FR galaxies).
The observed log  N –log  S distribution and redshift distribution of both FSRQs and BL Lacs constrain our model. Depending slightly on the evolutionary behaviour of blazars, we find that unresolved AGN underproduce the intensity of the extragalactic background radiation. With our model only 20–40 per cent of the extragalactic background emission can be explained by unresolved blazars if we integrate to a maximum redshift of Z _max=3. For Z _max=5, blazars could account for 40–80 per cent of the EGRB. Roughly 70–90 per cent of the AGN contribution to the EGRB would result from BL Lacs. While the systematic uncertainties in our estimate for the FSRQ contribution appear small, in the case of BL Lacs our model parameters are not consistent with the results from studies in other wavelength regimes, and therefore may have larger systematic uncertainties. Thus we end up with two possibilities, depending on whether we underpredict or overpredict the BL Lac contribution: either unresolved AGN cannot account for the entire EGRB, or unresolved BL Lacs produce the observed background.
We predict a significant flattening of the γ -ray log  N –log  S function in the next two decades of flux below the EGRET threshold.     

A search for radio emission from Galactic supersoft X-ray sources

We have made a deep search for radio emission from all the northern hemisphere supersoft X-ray sources using the Very Large Array (VLA) and multi-element radio-linked interferometer network (MERLIN) telescopes, at 5 and 8.4 GHz. Three previously undetected sources, T Pyx, V1974 Cygni and RX J0019.8+2156, were imaged in quiescence using the VLA in order to search for any persistent emission. No radio emission was detected in any of the VLA fields down to a typical 1 σ rms noise of 20 μJy beam⁻¹, however, 17 new point sources were detected in the fields with 5-GHz fluxes between 100 and 1500 μJy, giving an average 100-μJy source density of ∼200 deg⁻², comparable to what was found in the MERLIN Hubble Deep Field survey. The persistent source AG Draconis was observed by MERLIN to provide a confirmation of previous VLA observations and to investigate the source at a higher resolution. The core is resolved at the milliarcsec scale into two components that have a combined flux of ∼1 mJy. It is possible that we are detecting nebulosity, which is becoming resolved out by the higher MERLIN resolution. We have investigated possible causes of radio emission from a wind environment, both directly from the secondary star, and also consequently, of the high X-ray luminosity from the white dwarf. There is an order of magnitude discrepancy between observed and modelled values that can be explained by the uncertainty in fundamental quantities within these systems.     

High resolution imaging of the Hubble Deep and Flanking Fields

42 hours of A-array VLA data and 18 days MERLIN data at 1.4 GHz have been combined to image a 10 arcminute field centred on the Hubble Deep Field (HDF). This area encloses both the Hubble Deep and Flanking Fields. A complete sample of 87 sources have been detected with flux densities above 40 μJy. All these have been imaged with the MERLIN+VLA combination to produce images with 0.2, 0.3 and 0.5 arcsecond resolution. These are the most sensitive 1.4 GHz images yet made with rms noise levels of 3.3 μJy/beam in the 0.2 arcsecond images. About 70% of the microJy sources are found to be starburst type systems associated with major disk galaxies in the redshift range 0.4–1. Some 20% are found to be low-luminosity AGN systems identified with field ellipticals at redshifts close to 1. The remaining 10% are associated with optically faint systems close to or beyond the HDF limit; many of these may be dust-shrouded starbursts at high redshift. We propose to extend this study to include VLBI data of comparable sensitivity to investigate the compact radio structures found in the microJy source population.     

Evolutionary unification in composite active galactic nuclei

In this paper, we present an evolutionary unification scenario, involving supermassive black holes (SMBHs) and starbursts (SBs) with outflow (OF), that seems capable of explaining most of the observational properties (of at least part) of active galactic nuclei (AGN).
The scenario includes a nuclear/circumnuclear SB closely associated with the AGN where the narrow-line region (NLR), broad-line region (BLR) and broad absorption line (BAL) region are produced in part by the OF process with shells and in compact supernova remnants (cSNRs).
The OF process in BAL quasi-stellar objects (QSOs) with extreme infrared (IR) and Fe  ii emission is studied. In addition, the Fe  ii problem regarding the BLR of AGN is analysed. The correlations between the BAL, IR emission, Fe  ii intensity and the intrinsic properties of the AGN are not clearly understood. We suggest here that the behaviour of the BAL, IR and Fe  ii emission in AGN can be understood within an evolutionary and composite model for AGN.
In our model, strong BAL systems and Fe  ii emission are present (and intense) in young IR objects. Parameters like the BALs, IR emission, Fe  ii /Hβ intensity ratio, Fe  ii equivalent width (EW), broad-line width, [O  iii ]λ5007-Å intensity and width, NLR size, X-ray spectral slope in radio quiet (RQ) AGN plus lobe separation, and lobe to core intensity ratio in radio loud (RL) AGN are proposed to be fundamentally time-dependent variables inside time-scales of the order of 10⁸ yr. Orientation/obscuration effects take the role of a second parameter providing the segregation between Seyfert 1/Seyfert 2 galaxies (Sy1/Sy2) and broad-/narrow-line radio galaxies (BLRG/NLRG).     

A sample of radio-loud active galactic nuclei in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey

A sample of 2712 radio-luminous galaxies is defined from the second data release of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) by cross-comparing the main spectroscopic galaxy sample with two radio surveys: the National Radio Astronomy Observatories (NRAO) Very Large Array (VLA) Sky Survey (NVSS) and the Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty centimeters (FIRST) survey. The comparison is carried out in a multistage process and makes optimal use of both radio surveys by exploiting the sensitivity of the NVSS to extended and multicomponent radio sources in addition to the high angular resolution of the FIRST images. A radio source sample with 95 per cent completeness and 98.9 per cent reliability is achieved, far better than would be possible for this sample if only one of the surveys was used. The radio source sample is then divided into two classes: radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) and galaxies in which the radio emission is dominated by star formation. The division is based on the location of a galaxy in the plane of 4000-Å break strength versus radio luminosity per unit stellar mass and provides a sample of 2215 radio-loud AGN and 497 star-forming galaxies brighter than 5 mJy at 1.4 GHz. A full catalogue of positions and radio properties is provided for these sources. The local radio luminosity function is then derived both for radio-loud AGN and for star-forming galaxies and is found to be in agreement with previous studies. By using the radio to far-infrared (FIR) correlation, the radio luminosity function of star-forming galaxies is also compared to the luminosity function derived in the FIR. It is found to agree well at high luminosities but less so at lower luminosities, confirming that the linearity of the radio to FIR correlation breaks down below about 10²² W Hz⁻¹ at 1.4 GHz.     

Intraday polarization variability outside the VLBI core of the active galactic nucleus 0716+714

Rapid ('intraday') cm-wavelength variations in both total and polarized flux density have been observed in a number of strong extragalactic radio sources. It is difficult to explain these variations purely as propagation effects, but if they are intrinsic to the sources, implausibly high brightness temperatures are required. We discuss here rapid polarization variability during our λ =6 cm global very long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations of the active galactic nucleus 0716+714. Measurements made with the Very Large Array (VLA) during the VLBI observations indicate a ≃50° swing in the position angle χ of the VLA core polarization in 12 hours. Corresponding variations were observed only for short VLBI baselines, so that they could not have occurred in the VLBI core (the only feature detected in our VLBI polarization map). The fact that the variations appear both in the VLA data and in the VLBI data for short baselines makes it difficult to explain them as instrumental effects. This leads us to conclude that the rapid variations occurred outside the area covered by our VLBI map; we estimate that the variability occurred in some compact feature roughly 25 milliarcseconds from the nucleus. It is clear that compact structures on a wide range of scales must be taken into account in studies of intraday variability in AGN.