[en] A candidate accreting massive black hole (BH) with M_BH ∼ 10⁶ M_☉ has recently been identified at the center of the dwarf starburst galaxy Henize 2-10 (He 2-10). This discovery offers the first possibility of studying a growing BH in a nearby galaxy resembling those in the earlier universe, and opens up a new class of host galaxies to search for the smallest supermassive BHs. Here we present very long baseline interferometry observations of He 2-10 taken with the Long Baseline Array (LBA) at 1.4 GHz with an angular resolution of ∼0.''1 × 0.''03. A single compact radio source is detected at the precise location of the putative low-luminosity active galactic nucleus. The physical size of the nuclear radio emission is ∼<3 pc × 1 pc, an order of magnitude smaller than previous constraints from the Very Large Array (VLA), and the brightness temperature of T_B > 3 × 10⁵ K confirms a non-thermal origin. These LBA observations indicate that the nuclear radio emission originates from a single object, and exclude the possibility of multiple supernova remnants as the origin of the nuclear radio emission previously detected with the VLA at lower resolution. A weaker, more extended, off-nuclear source is also detected with the LBA and a comparison with multi-wavelength ancillary data indicate that, unlike the nuclear source, the off-nuclear source is co-spatial with a super star cluster, lacks a detectable X-ray point-source counterpart, and is almost certainly due to a supernova remnant in the host star cluster.

[en] PSR B1259-63 is a 48 ms pulsar in a highly eccentric 3.4 year orbit around the young massive star LS 2883. During the periastron passage the system displays transient non-thermal unpulsed emission from radio to very high energy gamma rays. It is one of the three galactic binary systems clearly detected at TeV energies, together with LS 5039 and LS I +61 303. We observed PSR B1259-63 after the 2007 periastron passage with the Australian Long Baseline Array at 2.3 GHz to trace the milliarcsecond (mas) structure of the source at three different epochs. We have discovered extended and variable radio structure. The peak of the radio emission is detected outside the binary system near periastron, at projected distances of 10-20 mas (25-45 AU assuming a distance of 2.3 kpc). The total extent of the emission is ∼50 mas (∼120 AU). This is the first observational evidence that non-accreting pulsars orbiting massive stars can produce variable extended radio emission at AU scales. Similar structures are also seen in LS 5039 and LS I +61 303, in which the nature of the compact object is unknown. The discovery presented here for the young non-accreting pulsar PSR B1259-63 reinforces the link with these two sources and supports the presence of pulsars in these systems as well. A simple kinematical model considering only a spherical stellar wind can approximately trace the extended structures if the binary system orbit has a longitude of the ascending node of Ω ∼ -40⁰ and a magnetization parameter of σ ∼ 0.005.

[en] Nearby, low-metallicity dwarf starburst galaxies hosting active galactic nuclei (AGNs) offer the best local analogs to study the early evolution of galaxies and their supermassive black holes (BHs). Here we present a detailed multiwavelength investigation of star formation and BH activity in the low-metallicity dwarf–dwarf galaxy merger Mrk 709. Using Hubble Space Telescope Hα and continuum imaging combined with Keck spectroscopy, we determine that the two dwarf galaxies are likely in the early stages of a merger (i.e., their first pass) and discover a spectacular ∼10 kpc long string of young massive star clusters (t ≲ 10 Myr; M _⋆ ≳ 10⁵ M _⊙) between the galaxies triggered by the interaction. We find that the southern galaxy, Mrk 709 S, is undergoing a clumpy mode of star formation resembling that seen in high-redshift galaxies, with multiple young clusters/clumps having stellar masses between 10⁷ and 10⁸ M _⊙. Furthermore, we present additional evidence for a low-luminosity AGN in Mrk 709 S (first identified by Reines et al. using radio and X-ray observations), including the detection of the coronal [Fe x] optical emission line. The work presented here provides a unique glimpse into processes key to hierarchical galaxy formation and BH growth in the early universe.

[en] Recent discoveries of dispersed, non-periodic impulsive radio signals with single-dish radio telescopes have sparked significant interest in exploring the relatively uncharted space of fast transient radio signals. Here we describe V-FASTR, an experiment to perform a blind search for fast transient radio signals using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). The experiment runs entirely in a commensal mode, alongside normal VLBA observations and operations. It is made possible by the features and flexibility of the DiFX software correlator that is used to process VLBA data. Using the VLBA for this type of experiment offers significant advantages over single-dish experiments, including a larger field of view, the ability to easily distinguish local radio-frequency interference from real signals, and the possibility to localize detected events on the sky to milliarcsecond accuracy. We describe our software pipeline, which accepts short integration (∼ ms) spectrometer data from each antenna in real time during correlation and performs an incoherent dedispersion separately for each antenna, over a range of trial dispersion measures. The dedispersed data are processed by a sophisticated detector and candidate events are recorded. At the end of the correlation, small snippets of the raw data at the time of the events are stored for further analysis. We present the results of our event detection pipeline from some test observations of the pulsars B0329+54 and B0531+21 (the Crab pulsar).

[en] Transitional millisecond pulsars (tMSPs) switch, on roughly multi-year timescales, between rotation-powered radio millisecond pulsar (RMSP) and accretion-powered low-mass X-ray binary (LMXB) states. The tMSPs have raised several questions related to the nature of accretion flow in their LMXB state and the mechanism that causes the state switch. The discovery of coherent X-ray pulsations from PSR J1023+0038 (while in the LMXB state) provides us with the first opportunity to perform timing observations and to compare the neutron star’s spin variation during this state to the measured spin-down in the RMSP state. Whereas the X-ray pulsations in the LMXB state likely indicate that some material is accreting onto the neutron star’s magnetic polar caps, radio continuum observations indicate the presence of an outflow. The fraction of the inflowing material being ejected is not clear, but it may be much larger than that reaching the neutron star’s surface. Timing observations can measure the total torque on the neutron star. We have phase-connected nine XMM-Newton observations of PSR J1023+0038 over the last 2.5 years of the LMXB state to establish a precise measurement of spin evolution. We find that the average spin-down rate as an LMXB is 26.8 ± 0.4% faster than the rate (−2.39 × 10⁻¹⁵ Hz s⁻¹) determined during the RMSP state. This shows that negative angular momentum contributions (dipolar magnetic braking, and outflow) exceed positive ones (accreted material), and suggests that the pulsar wind continues to operate at a largely unmodified level. We discuss implications of this tight observational constraint in the context of possible accretion models.

[en] Recent investigations reveal an important new class of transient radio phenomena that occur on submillisecond timescales. Often, transient surveys' data volumes are too large to archive exhaustively. Instead, an online automatic system must excise impulsive interference and detect candidate events in real time. This work presents a case study using data from multiple geographically distributed stations to perform simultaneous interference excision and transient detection. We present several algorithms that incorporate dedispersed data from multiple sites, and report experiments with a commensal real-time transient detection system on the Very Long Baseline Array. We test the system using observations of pulsar B0329+54. The multiple-station algorithms enhanced sensitivity for detection of individual pulses. These strategies could improve detection performance for a future generation of geographically distributed arrays such as the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder and the Square Kilometre Array.

[en] The V-FASTR experiment on the Very Long Baseline Array was designed to detect dispersed pulses of milliseconds in duration, such as fast radio bursts (FRBs). We use all V-FASTR data through 2015 February to report V-FASTR’s upper limits on the rates of FRBs, and compare these with rederived rates from Parkes FRB detection experiments. V-FASTR’s operation at $\mathrm{\lambda <!--\; ??\; -->}=20\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}$ allows direct comparison with the 20 cm Parkes rate, and we derive a power-law limit of $\mathrm{\gamma <!--\; ??\; -->}<<!--\; <\; -->-<!--\; ???\; -->0.4$ (95% confidence limit) on the index of FRB source counts, $N(><!--\; >\; -->S)\propto <!--\; ???\; -->S^{\mathrm{\gamma <!--\; ??\; -->}}$. Using the previously measured FRB rate and the unprecedented amount of survey time spent searching for FRBs at a large range of wavelengths ($0.3\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}><!--\; >\; -->\mathrm{\lambda <!--\; ??\; -->}><!--\; >\; -->90$ cm), we also place frequency-dependent limits on the spectral distribution of FRBs. The most constraining frequencies place two-point spectral index limits of ${\mathrm{\alpha <!--\; ??\; -->}}_{20\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}}^{4\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}}<<!--\; <\; -->5.8$ and ${\mathrm{\alpha <!--\; ??\; -->}}_{90\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}}^{20\mathrm{c}\mathrm{m}}><!--\; >\; -->-<!--\; ???\; -->7.6$, where fluence $F\propto <!--\; ???\; -->f^{\mathrm{\alpha <!--\; ??\; -->}}$ if we assume that the burst rate reported by Champion et al. of $R(F\sim <!--\; ???\; -->0.6\mathrm{J}\mathrm{y}\mathrm{m}\mathrm{s})=7\times <!--\; ??\; -->{10}^3{\mathrm{s}\mathrm{k}\mathrm{y}}^{-<!--\; ???\; -->1}{\mathrm{d}\mathrm{a}\mathrm{y}}^{-<!--\; ???\; -->1}$ is accurate (for bursts of ∼3 ms duration). This upper limit on α suggests that if FRBs are extragalactic but noncosmological, on average they are not experiencing excessive free–free absorption due to a medium with high optical depth (assuming temperature ∼8000 K), which excessively inverts their low-frequency spectrum. This in turn implies that the dispersion of FRBs arises in either or both of the intergalactic medium or the host galaxy, rather than from the source itself.

[en] We present the first results from the V-FASTR experiment, a commensal search for fast transient radio bursts using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). V-FASTR is unique in that the widely spaced VLBA antennas provide a discriminant against non-astronomical signals and a mechanism for the localization and identification of events that is not possible with single dishes or short baseline interferometers. Thus, far V-FASTR has accumulated over 1300 hr of observation time with the VLBA, between 90 cm and 3 mm wavelength (327 MHz-86 GHz), providing the first limits on fast transient event rates at high radio frequencies (>1.4 GHz). V-FASTR has blindly detected bright individual pulses from seven known pulsars but has not detected any single-pulse events that would indicate high-redshift impulsive bursts of radio emission. At 1.4 GHz, V-FASTR puts limits on fast transient event rates comparable with the PALFA survey at the Arecibo telescope, but generally at lower sensitivities, and comparable to the 'fly's eye' survey at the Allen Telescope Array, but with less sky coverage. We also illustrate the likely performance of the Phase 1 SKA dish array for an incoherent fast transient search fashioned on V-FASTR.

[en] We define a framework for determining constraints on the detection rate of fast transient events from a population of underlying sources, with a view to incorporate beam shape, frequency effects, scattering effects, and detection efficiency into the metric. We then demonstrate a method for combining independent data sets into a single event rate constraint diagram, using a probabilistic approach to the limits on parameter space. We apply this new framework to present the latest results from the V-FASTR experiment, a commensal fast transients search using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). In the 20 cm band, V-FASTR now has the ability to probe the regions of parameter space of importance for the observed Lorimer and Keane fast radio transient candidates by combining the information from observations with differing bandwidths, and properly accounting for the source dispersion measure, VLBA antenna beam shape, experiment time sampling, and stochastic nature of events. We then apply the framework to combine the results of the V-FASTR and Allen Telescope Array Fly's Eye experiments, demonstrating their complementarity. Expectations for fast transients experiments for the SKA Phase I dish array are then computed, and the impact of large differential bandwidths is discussed.

[en] PSR J1012+5307, a millisecond pulsar in orbit with a helium white dwarf (WD), has been timed with high precision for about 25 yr. One of the main objectives of this long-term timing is to use the large asymmetry in gravitational binding energy between the neutron star and the WD to test gravitational theories. Such tests, however, will be eventually limited by the accuracy of the distance to the pulsar. Here, we present very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) astrometry results spanning approximately 2.5 yr for PSR J1012+5307, obtained with the Very Long Baseline Array as part of the $\mathrm{M}\mathrm{S}\mathrm{P}\mathrm{S}\mathrm{R}\mathrm{\pi <!--\; ??\; -->}$ project. These provide the first proper motion and absolute position for PSR J1012+5307 measured in a quasi-inertial reference frame. From the VLBI results, we measure a distance of ${0.83}_{-<!--\; ???\; -->0.02}^{+0.06}$ kpc (all the estimates presented in the abstract are at 68% confidence) for PSR J1012+5307, which is the most precise obtained to date. Using the new distance, we improve the uncertainty of measurements of the unmodeled contributions to orbital period decay, which, combined with three other pulsars, places new constraints on the coupling constant for dipole gravitational radiation ${\mathrm{\kappa <!--\; ??\; -->}}_D=(-<!--\; ???\; -->1.7\pm <!--\; ??\; -->1.7)\times <!--\; ??\; -->{10}^{-<!--\; ???\; -->4}$ and the fractional time derivative of Newton’s gravitational constant $\stackrel{\dot{}<!--\; ??\; -->}{G}/G=-<!--\; ???\; -->{1.8}_{-<!--\; ???\; -->4.7}^{+5.6}\times <!--\; ??\; -->{10}^{-<!--\; ???\; -->13}{\mathrm{y}\mathrm{r}}^{-<!--\; ???\; -->1}$ in the local universe. As the uncertainties of the observed decays of orbital period for the four leading pulsar-WD systems become negligible in ≈10 yr, the uncertainties for $\stackrel{\dot{}<!--\; ??\; -->}{G}/G$ and κ _D will be improved to ≤1.5 × 10⁻¹³ yr⁻¹ and ≤1.0 × 10⁻⁴, respectively, predominantly limited by the distance uncertainties.