Optical and radio studies of radio sources

We present the classification of optical identifications and radio spectra of six radio sources from a complete (in flux density) sample in the declination range 10° to 12°30′ (J2000.0). The observations were carried out with the 6-m Special Astrophysical Observatory telescope (Russia) in the wavelength range 3600–10000 Å, the 2.1-m GHAO telescope (Mexico) in the range 4200–9000 Å, and the RATAN-600 radio telescope in the frequency range 0.97–21.7 GHz. Three of the six objects under study are classified as quasars, one is a BL Lac object, one is an absorption-line radio galaxy, and one is an emission-line radio galaxy. Five objects have flat radio spectra, and one object has a power-law radio spectrum. All of the radio sources identified as quasars or BL Lac objects show variable radio flux densities. The spectra of three objects were separated into extended and compact components.     

A radio and optical study of Molonglo radio sources

We present multi-wavelength radio observations with the Very Large Array, and narrow- and broad-band optical observations with the 2.5-m telescope at the Las Campanas Observatory, of a well-defined sample of high-luminosity Fanaroff–Riley class II radio galaxies and quasars, selected from the Molonglo Reference Catalogue 1-Jy sample. These observations were carried out as part of a programme to investigate the effects of orientation and environment on some of the observed properties of these sources. We examine the dependence of the Liu–Pooley relationship, which shows that radio lobes with flatter radio spectra are less depolarized, on size, identification and redshift, and show that it is significantly stronger for smaller sources, with the strength of the relationship being similar for both radio galaxies and quasars. In addition to Doppler effects, there appear to be intrinsic differences between the lobes on opposite sides. We discuss the asymmetry in brightness and location of the hotspots, and present estimates of the ages and velocities from matched-resolution observations in the L and C bands. Narrow- and broad-band optical images of some of these sources were made to study their environments and correlate with the symmetry parameters. An extended emission-line region is seen in a quasar, and in four of the objects possible companion galaxies are seen close to the radio axis.     

The faint radio sky: radio astronomy becomes mainstream

Radio astronomy has changed. For years it studied relatively rare sources, which emit mostly non-thermal radiation across the entire electromagnetic spectrum, i.e. radio quasars and radio galaxies. Now, it is reaching such faint flux densities that it detects mainly star-forming galaxies and the more common radio-quiet active galactic nuclei. These sources make up the bulk of the extragalactic sky, which has been studied for decades in the infrared, optical, and X-ray bands. I follow the transformation of radio astronomy by reviewing the main components of the radio sky at the bright and faint ends, the issue of their proper classification, their number counts, luminosity functions, and evolution. The overall “big picture” astrophysical implications of these results, and their relevance for a number of hot topics in extragalactic astronomy, are also discussed. The future prospects of the faint radio sky are very bright, as we will soon be flooded with survey data. This review should be useful to all extragalactic astronomers, irrespective of their favourite electromagnetic band(s), and even stellar astronomers might find it somewhat gratifying.     

Ionospheric refraction in radio source observations at long radio wavelengths

Ionospheric refraction effects encountered in radio source observations in the 30 to 75 MHz range with the Clark Lake TPT telescope are discussed. It is found that simple calibration procedures are sufficient to provide positions of unknown sources with an accuracy of approximately one arcmin. Observations made near sunrise, or during disturbed ionospheric conditions must be discarded. If no corrections are applied, RMS errors of a few arcmin are to be expected. On leave at Radiosterrenwacht Dwingeloo, The Netherlands     

Giant radio sources

We present multifrequency Very Large Array (VLA) observations of two giant quasars, 0437−244 and 1025−229, from the Molonglo Complete Sample. These sources have well-defined FR II radio structure, possible one-sided jets, no significant depolarization between 1365 and 4935 MHz and low rotation measure (|RM|<20 rad m⁻²). The giant sources are defined to be those with overall projected size 1 Mpc. We have compiled a sample of about 50 known giant radio sources from the literature, and have compared some of their properties with a complete sample of 3CR radio sources of smaller sizes to investigate the evolution of giant sources, and test their consistency with the unified scheme for radio galaxies and quasars. We find an inverse correlation between the degree of core prominence and total radio luminosity, and show that the giant radio sources have similar core strengths to smaller sources of similar total luminosity. Hence their large sizes are unlikely to be caused by stronger nuclear activity. The degree of collinearity of the giant sources is also similar to that of the sample of smaller sources. The luminosity–size diagram shows that the giant sources are less luminous than our sample of smaller sized 3CR sources, consistent with evolutionary scenarios in which the giants have evolved from the smaller sources, losing energy as they expand to these large dimensions. For the smaller sources, radiative losses resulting from synchrotron radiation are more significant while for the giant sources the equipartition magnetic fields are smaller and inverse Compton loss owing to microwave background radiation is the dominant process. The radio properties of the giant radio galaxies and quasars are consistent with the unified scheme.     

Suppression of atmospheric radio emission fluctuations in radio astronomical observations

The fluctuations of radio emission of the atmosphere (for the present only cloudy) are a substantial limiting factor for observations of cosmic radio sources on centimetre and millimetre wavelengths. For suppressing these fluctuations the dual-beam method (differential receiving from two slightly separated direction) is widely used. At the same time works for perfecting this method are going on as well as in searching other possibilities with the principal aim of doing away limitations on sizes of sources under observation. There are considered here these methods with a competitive evaluation of their possibilities for suppressing fluctuation of the atmosphere radio emissions.     

The pc-scale radio structure of MIR-observed radio galaxies

We investigated the relationship between the accretion process and jet properties by utilizing very long baseline array(VLBA) and mid-infrared(MIR) data for a sample of 45 3 CRR radio galaxies selected with a flux density at 178 MHz 16.4 Jy, 5 GHz very large array(VLA) core flux density≥7 m Jy and MIR observations. The pc-scale radio structure at 5 GHz is presented by using our VLBA observations for 21 sources acquired in February, 2016, the analysis of archival data for 16 objects and directly obtaining measurements for eight radio galaxies available from literatures. The accretion mode is constrained from the Eddington ratio with a dividing value of 0.01, which is estimated from the MIR-based bolometric luminosity and the black hole masses. While most Fanaroff-Riley type II radio galaxies(FRIIs) have higher Eddington ratio than Fanaroff-Riley type I radio galaxies(FRIs), we found that there is indeed no single correspondence between the FR morphology and accretion mode with eight FRIIs at low accretion rate and two FRIs at high accretion rate. There is a significant correlation between the VLBA core luminosity at 5 GHz and the Eddington ratio. Various morphologies are identified in our sample, including core only, single-sided core-jet and two-sided core-jet structures. We found that the higher accretion rate may be more likely related with the core-jet structure, thus generating a more extended jet. These results imply that the higher accretion rates are likely able to produce more powerful jets. There is a strong correlation between the MIR luminosity at 15 μm and VLBA 5 GHz core luminosity, in favor of the tight relation between the accretion disk and jets. In our sample, the core brightness temperature ranges from 10~9 to 10~(13.38) K with a median value of 10~(11.09) K, indicating that systematically the beaming effect may not be significant. The exceptional cases, FRIs at high accretion rates and FRIIs at low accretion rates, are exclusively at the high and low ends, respectively, of the distribution of the flux ratio for VLBA core to 178 MHz flux density. It is not impossible that the locations of these sources are due to the recent shining or weakening of their central engines(i.e., both accretion and jet).     

Millisecond radio spikes

Millisecond spikes of the solar radio emission are known for more than two decades. They have recently seen a surge in interest of theoreticians who are fascinated by their high brightness temperature of up to 10¹⁵ K, their association with hard X-ray bursts, and a possibly very intimate relation to electron acceleration. This review is intended to bridge the gap that presently seems to separate theory and observations. The wide range of spike observations is summarized and brought into the perspective of recent models. It is concluded that spikes yield a considerable potential for the diagnostics of energetic particles, their origin, and history in astrophysical plasmas.Proceedings of the Workshop on Radio Continua during Solar Flares, held at Duino (Trieste), Italy, 27–31 May, 1985.     

Prospects of detecting fast radio bursts using Indian radio telescopes

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are short duration highly energetic dispersed radio pulses. We developed a generic formalism (Bera et al. 2016, MNRAS, 457, 2530) to estimate the FRB detection rate for any radio telescope with given parameters. By using this model, we estimated the FRB detection rate for two Indian radio telescope; the Ooty Wide Field Array (OWFA) (Bhattacharyya et al. 2017, J. Astrophys. Astr., 38, 17) and the upgraded Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (uGMRT) (Bhattacharyya et al. 2018, J. Astrophys. Astr.) with three beam-forming modes. Here, we summarize these two works. We considered the energy spectrum of FRBs as a power law and the energy distribution of FRBs as a Dirac delta function and a Schechter luminosity function. We also considered two scattering models proposed by Bhat et al. (2004, Astrophys. J. Suppl. Series, 206, 1) and Macquart & Koay (2013, ApJ, 776, 125) for these works and we consider FRB pulse without scattering as a special case. We found that the future prospects of detecting FRBs by using these two Indian radio telescopes is good. They are capable to detect a significant number of FRBs per day. According to our prediction, we can detect \(\sim 10^5{-}10^8\), \(\sim 10^3{-}10^6\) and \(\sim 10^5{-}10^7\) FRBs per day by using OWFA, commensal systems of GMRT and uGMRT respectively. Even a non detection of the predicted events will be very useful in constraining FRB properties.     

Pulsar radio emission

The theory of pulsar radio emission has been developed in a series of our papers since 1992. It was shown that pulsar radio emission is produced in the lower part of a channel of open magnetic field lines, in a region with a height h ≈ 1.1-10⁷ μ ₃₀ ^1/3 /P^4/21 cm above a magnetic cap of the neutron star (P is the pulsar’s period and μ is the star’s magnetic moment). Here, owing to vigorously occurring processes (the production of photons of curvature radiation and their annihilation into e⁺e^- pairs), two ultrarelativistic particle fluxes are formed: an electron flux moving upward and a positron flux falling onto the star’s magnetic cap. These main fluxes are accompanied by narrow strips of positron and electron fluxes of relatively low energy, the curvature emission from which is a strong coherent radio source. The present paper is a review of earlier papers, and important additions and refinements are also made. Equations are offered for the radio luminosity of a pulsar, the solid angle of the radio beam, and the magnetic moment and moment of inertia of the pulsar’s neutron star. Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 43, No. 1, pp. 147-169, January–March, 2000.     

Magnetic fields and radio jets in giant radio galaxies

Published in Astrofizika, Vol. 38, No. 4, pp. 692–693, October–December, 1995.     

Solar radio continuum storms

Radio noise continuum emissions observed in metric and deca-metric wave frequencies are, in general, associated with actively varying sunspot groups accompanied by the S-component of microwave radio emissions. It is known that these continuum emission sources, often called type I storm sources, are often associated with type III burst storm activity from metric to hectometric wave frequencies. This storm activity is, therefore, closely connected with the development of these continuum emission sources.It is shown that the S-component emission in microwave frequencies generally precedes by several days the emission of these noise continuum storms of lower frequencies. In order for these storms to develop, the growth of sunspot groups into complex types is very important with the increase of the average magnetic field intensity and area of these groups. In particular, the types of these groups such as and are very important on the generation of noise continuum storm sources and sharp increase of the flux of these continuum emissions. This fact suggests that sunspot magnetic configuration and its variation, both space and time, are very effective on the growth of the sources for these noise continuum emissions.Although we have not known yet the true mechanism of these emissions, it is very likely that energetic electrons, 10 to 100 keV, accelerated in association with the variation of sunspot magnetic fields, are responsible as the sources of those radio emissions. Furthermore it seems that these electrons are contributing to the emission of type III burst storms, which are associated with the noise continuum storm sources. In explaining the origin of these storms, some plasma processes must be taken into consideration. Furthermore, it should be remarked that the storage mechanism of the electrons mentioned above plays an important role in generating both the noise continuum emissions and type III burst storms, because on-fringe type III bursts are all generated above these noise continuum storms sources. After reviewing the theories of these noise continuum storm emissions, a model is briefly considered to explain the relation between these continuums and type III bursts, and a discussion is given on the role of energetic electrons on these two emissions. It is pointed out that instabilities associated with these electrons and their relation to their own stabilizing effects are important in interpreting both of these storm emissions.Astrophysics and Space Science Review Paper.     

Pulsar radio emission

A new version of the theory of pulsar radio emission is developed for the case of a coaxial rotator. It is based on the electric field that we established [G. S. Sahakian, Astrofizika, 37, 97 (1994)] for the radiation channel (the channel of open magnetic field lines) and on convenient approximations for the electron energy obtained in [G. S. Sahakian and É. S. Chubarian, Astrofizika, 37, 255 (1994)]. It is shown that, owing to the emission of photons of curvature radiation by particles, e e+_c', and photon annihilation, _c e⁺e^– in the lower part of the radiation channel, a special region (the magnetic funnel) is formed in which vigorous cascade multiplication of particles occurs. The height of the magnetic funnel is h 6R^0.2, where R is the radius of the neutron star and is its angular rotation rate. As a result of supersaturation of the plasma density in the magnetic funnel, a discharge occurs after each time intervalt5·10^–7–0.8B ₁₂ ^–1.4 R ₆ ^–0.2 , i.e., the longitudinal electric field disappears (B is the magnetic induction in the star). During the active radiative processes in the magnetic funnel, two main fluxes of particles with high ultrarelativistic energies are formed: an upward flux of electrons and a positron flux falling onto the star's magnetic cap. These fluxes are accompanied by narrow strips of positron and electron fluxes, respectively, of considerably lower energy, which are fairly powerful, coherent radio sources. The pulsar's radio luminosity is calculated to be L7.4·10^223.8 ₃₀ ³ R ₆ ^–2 erg/sec, where =BR 3/2 is the star's magnetic moment. Comparing this result with observations, we conclude that the magnetic moment and hence the mass of the neutron star evidently must be considerably smaller, on the average, for fast pulsars than for slow ones. It is shown that the magnetic moment of the neutron star can be determined from the intervals between micropulses in the pulse profiles. The problem of the origin of the macrostructure of the radio pulse is discussed.Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 38, No. 1, pp. 141–185, January – March, 1995.     

Detection ofT-metric radio signals

We examine the properties of electromagnetic radiation embedded in the metric (+–++) in interaction with ordinary charged particles, where thex-direction is the direction of a superluminal source. The absorption of the corresponding photons and their conversion into ordinary light is considered in lowest-order perturbation theory. Particular emphasis is on the radiation component which spreads with velocities of values around infinity. It is shown that ordinary receivers of electromagnetic radiation do not respond to such light.     

The dynamic radio sky

Transient radio sources are necessarily compact and usually are the locations of explosive or dynamic events, therefore offering unique opportunities for probing fundamental physics and astrophysics. In addition, short-duration transients are powerful probes of intervening media owing to dispersion, scattering and Faraday rotation that modify the signals. While radio astronomy has an impressive record obtaining high time resolution, usually it is achieved in quite narrow fields of view. Consequently, the dynamic radio sky is poorly sampled, in contrast to the situation in the X-ray and γ-ray bands. The SKA has the potential to change this situation, opening up new parameter space in the search for radio transients. We summarize the wide variety of known and hypothesized radio transients and demonstrate that the SKA offers considerable power in exploring this parameter space. Requirements on the SKA to search the parameter space include the abilities to: (1) make targeted searches using beam forming capability; (2) conduct blind, all-sky surveys with dense sampling of the frequency–time plane in wide fields; (3) sample the sky with multiple fields of view from spatially well-separated sites in order to discriminate celestial and terrestrial signals; (4) utilize as much of the SKAs aggregate collecting area as possible in blind surveys, thus requiring a centrally condensed configuration, and; (5) localize repeating transient sources to high angular precision, requiring a configuration with long baselines, thus requiring collecting area in both a centrally condensed “core” array and sufficient area on long baselines.     

Weakly radiating radio pulsars

We analyze the statistical distribution of weakly radiating pulsars, i.e., radio pulsars that have passed to the stage of an orthogonal rotator during the evolution of the inclination angle X. We discuss in detail the factors that lead to a significant reduction in the energy losses for this class of objects. We have determined the number of weakly radiating radio pulsars and their distribution in spin period P. The predictions of a theory based on the model of current losses are shown to be consistent with observational data.     

Origin of the central radio gaps in extragalactic radio sources

We propose an explanation of the origin of the central radio gaps which are usually observed in extragalactic radio sources that exhibit jet structures.An estimate was made of neutron Lorentz factors of neutrons responsible for energy transport from the central engine of active galactic nuclei (AGNs) to the jet turn-on point of typical AGNs.The probable explanations of the existence of different belts in the radio gap morphology was attempted.     

On post-SKA radio astronomy

It is suggested that the development of the SKA will drastically change the face of radio astronomy in the 21st Century. A FAST-style SKA would admit observations of low contrast features, and would be the best design for studying the `dark ages' of the Universe (x≫ 1) where sub-arcmin total power instruments can usefully be employed. To date there have been no proposals for post-SKA, billion square-metra instruments; we speculate that mobile communication systems can be used. In the very distant future, SKA multi-beam systems could be used to collect signals reflected by Solar system bodies such as the asteroid belt. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.