Department of Physics & Astronomy
University of New Mexico

Center for Astrophysics Research and Technologies Seminar Series

The fringes of VLBI

Presented by Jay Blanchard, NRAO

In this talk I will present two projects that push very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) techniques to their limits in aid of new science: The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is an ambitious project using VLBI at 215 and 325 GHz frequencies to directly image the accretion disk (and black hole shadow) of Sagittarius A*. Here I will present some of the technical set up and testing at ALMA and APEX in aid of the EHT, and one of the first science results: single baseline 1.4 mm (210 GHz) APEX - SPT fringes of Centaurus A. Secondly I will present global VLBI follow-up of the first merger of two neutron stars. Performed ~207 days after the gravitational wave detection, these observations resulted in a detection of a compact core, suggesting the formation of a relativistic jet. This result disagrees with previous cocoon emission models.

2:00 pm, Thursday, October 31, 2019
PAIS-3300, PAIS

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