EVN/JIVE Newsletter - Edition 70 January 2025

Welcome to the January 2025 issue of the EVN/JIVE newsletter.

Welcome from EVN CBD Chair

Simon Garrington
Jodrell Bank Observatory, University of Manchester
EVN CBD Chair

CfP Observing proposals are invited for the European VLBI Network (EVN). Deadline: 1 October 2024, 16:00:00 UTC. The EVN facility is open to all astronomers, but currently restrictions apply to teams with PIs and/or co-Is with affiliation to institutes in Russia and Belarus. Astronomers with limited or no VLBI experience are particularly encouraged to apply for observing time. Student proposals are judged favourably. Support with proposal preparation, scheduling, correlation, data reduction and analysis can be requested from the Joint Institute for VLBI ERIC (JIVE). Check details of the call for proposals here.

EVN Support+ programme: JIVE/EVN has a programme to provide extended support to teams new to the EVN, with little or no direct VLBI experience. This includes the scheduling of the VLBI run and the VLBI-specific parts of the data reduction (including a-priori amplitude calibration and fringe-fitting). Imaging, and the interpretation of the data is the responsibility of the team. We aim to support some standard VLBI projects, evaluated by the EVN Program Committee with the highest grades. See the call for proposals for more information. For further questions please contact the Chair of the EVN PC, Zsolt Paragi (evnpc@jive.eu).

EVN-lite: EVN-lite is an initiative to support projects that may request hundreds of hours of observations outside of regular EVN sessions, but only requiring a small fraction of these to be correlated (e.g. based on a single dish detection of a rare event). Observations are typically done with a limited subarray of the EVN, strictly on a best-effort basis. In principle, trigger projects could be considered to override some of these EVN-lite observations. We welcome trigger proposals that would strongly benefit from the additional triggering opportunities outside of regular sessions, with limited EVN subarrays. More information can be found under the EVN-lite item here.

EVN Service observations: The EVN may carry out service observations of (potentially) high-profile transient events that could attract attention from various groups. These initial observations could be done immediately, before proposals arrive. The data would be available to all teams successfully proposing for a follow-up program, but the EVN may attach conditions to releasing the data. Eventually, the data would be made publicly available through the EVN Archive. The data for the first EVN service observation (on the nearby supernova SN2023ixf in M101) can be downloaded here.

Revealing faint compact radio jets at redshifts above 5 with very long baseline interferometry

Máté Krezinger

High-redshift radio quasars (z > 5) are unique probes of the early Universe. Radio quasars are accreting supermassive black holes which eject powerful relativistic plasma jets. They are extreme luminous objects seen even from the high-redshift Universe, therefore able to provide insights into the formation and evolution of the first galaxies and supermassive black holes. Even from these distances, VLBI can reveal the compact innermost parts of the radio-emitting relativistic jets on millarcsecond (mas) scale. To date, only a dozen of the known quasars have been observed with VLBI at redshifts z > 5 (e.g. Perger et al., 2017). Read more.

A Radio Study of Persistent Radio Sources in Nearby Dwarf Galaxies: Implications for Fast Radio Bursts

Yuxin (Vic) Dong

Most extragalactic radio sources arise from recent star formation and active galactic nuclei (AGN). However, over the past decade, a unique third category has emerged: compact persistent radio sources (PRSs) that are predominately found in dwarf host galaxy environments. They were initially linked to fast radio bursts (FRBs), which are bright, millisecond-duration flashes of coherent radio emission with an enigmatic origin. The PRSs appear to fall into two distinct families: one potentially tied to intermediate-mass black holes (IMBHs) and the other to FRBs and other transient phenomena. Read more.

The expansion of the GRB 221009A afterglow

Stefano Giarratana

Long-duration gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are powerful explosions that serve as fundamental laboratories to study the physics of ultra-relativistic jets. They are believed to mark the catastrophic death of a massive star and the subsequent formation of a spinning stellar mass black hole or neutron star. This newborn central engine may power and launch relativistic jets of ejected matter that expand and interact with the circumburst medium, producing both a forward shock and a reverse shock. The electrons at the shock fronts are accelerated to relativistic energies, producing a long-lived, multi-wavelength afterglow via synchrotron emission. Read more.

Extragalactic research based on new-generation geodetic data

Víctor Pérez-Díez

The linear polarization basis is preferably used in new-generation radio interferometers. The main reason is the wide instantaneous fractional bandwidths that can be achieved with a minimum instrumental polarization. This is the case of the VLBI Global Observing System (VGOS), the next-generation geodetic VLBI system. In order to achieve the goal of 1 mm accuracy in station position, extremely wide bandwidths are required to allow the measurement of group delays with a precision of about a picosecond. In particular, VGOS demands the use of ultra-wideband receivers covering a broad frequency range from 2 GHz to 14 GHz (Petrachenko et al. 2009). Read more.

New Insights from the Global VLBI Alliance: Edge-Brightening in AGN Jets is More common Than Previously Thought!

Jongho Park

A fraction of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) hosts relativistic jets that can extend to kiloparsecs and megaparsecs from the central supermassive black holes. Interestingly, jets observed in certain nearby radio galaxies, such as M87 (Walker et al. 2018), 3C 84 (Giovanninni et al. 2018), and Centaurus A (Janssen et al. 2021), exhibit an edge-brightened morphology. This is characterized by brighter jet edges compared to the jet axis region in their transverse intensity profiles. Conversely, jets observed in most other AGN, usually in distant blazars, exhibit a center-brightened morphology. Read more.

EVN Symposium in Bonn and JIVE's anniversary session

The 16th European VLBI Network Symposium and Users Meeting, hosted by the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, Germany, from September 2–6, welcomed over 160 participants from 22 countries. The event featured 120 contributions, including 50 posters, on topics such as dark matter, galaxy evolution, black holes, jets in active galactic nuclei, and advancements in VLBI technology. Read more in the RadioNet newsletter.

JIVE's anniversary event: 30 years creating the bigger picture together

During a dedicated 90-minute session on the first day of the European VLBI Network Symposium in Bonn from 2 to 6 September 2024, JIVE celebrated its 30th anniversary, surrounded by its community. Key individuals who have shaped JIVE into what it is today reflected on its milestones and future directions. Read the full details of that memorable event.

The ACME project kicks off

Artwork: Beabudai Design

On September 16–17, the kick-off meeting for the Astrophysics Centre for Multimessenger Studies in Europe (ACME) took place in Paris. This EU-funded HORIZON-INFRA-2023-SERV-01 project, coordinated by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), aims to advance the emerging field of multimessenger astrophysics. Read more about ACME and JIVE's role in it here.

ERIS 2024

Photo: Benito Marcote

The Tenth European Radio Interferometry School concluded on October 4th, after a five-day program of engaging lectures and valuable tutorials. Read more here.

VIRAC celebrated 30th anniversary

Photo from Ventspils University webpage.

On November 8, the Ventspils International Radio Astronomy Centre (VIRAC) celebrated its 30th anniversary. Since its establishment in 1994, VIRAC has made significant contributions to research in astronomy, astrophysics, and space technology, supported by its 32-meter and 16-meter radio telescopes. Read more on the Ventspils University webpage and JIVE's webpage.

EVN seminars

Since the latest EVN newsletter, two more EVN seminars have taken place: one by Richard Schilizzi on October 24th, and another by Cristina Nanci on December 12th. You can read more about these seminars and find the links to watch them here. The next EVN seminar will be given by Michael Garrett on February 5, 2025, on the topic "Reinventing SETI: Innovative Approaches and the Power of Interferometers". Following that, Tiziana Venturi will present her seminar in March or April (exact date to be confirmed).

JIVE becomes an EAS Organisational Sponsor

JIVE joined the European Astronomical Society as an Organisational Sponsor, reinforcing their shared commitment to advancing impactful science across Europe and beyond. Read the announcement about JIVE's sponsorship in the latest EAS newsletter.

News from the ORP project

From November 5 to 7, 2024, the Consortium Meeting of the Opticon RadioNet Pilot (ORP) took place at the Palais du Pharo in Marseille, France. This is the last meeting before the project officially ends on February 28, 2025. The meeting aimed to review the ongoing and upcoming activities of the ORP until its conclusion, as well as reflect on the project’s overall achievements. Read a summary of the meeting here.

The ORP Science Talks #3 and #4 took place on Sep 25 and December 20, respectively. The “ORP Science Talks” consist of Zoom-based events that offer researchers from the ORP community and beyond the opportunity to present their work and exchange ideas. More sessions are scheduled until the end of the project, via this Zoom link. You can watch the past talks on the ORP website.

News from RADIOBLOCKS

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ASTRON/JIVE Summer Research Programme. At ASTRON, Dwingeloo, the NL, for 10-12 weeks starting from the first week of June 2025. Application deadline: 31 January 2025, 23:59:59 CET. For more information, read here.
SKAO Science Meeting 2025, “A new era in Astrophysics: Preparing for early science with the SKAO”. At Görlitz, Germany, from 16 to 20 June 2025.
JIVE VLBI School 2025. At JIVE, the NL, and the University of Pretoria, SA, from 15 to 19 September 2025. For more information,click here.

EVN/JIVE newsletter editorial team: Agnieszka Slowikowska (JIVE Director), Zsolt Paragi (JIVE Head of User Support), Ioanna Kazakou (JIVE Communications Officer).

For any enquiries about the newsletter, please contact communications@jive.eu.