A pilot study on the radio flux variability of dwarf galaxies

The black hole occupation fraction in dwarf galaxies can provide an important clue for understanding the black hole seed formation. As a pilot feasibility study, we performed a KVN radio monitoring campaign over 8 months for 4 dwarf galaxies. Two galaxies (IC10 and NGC1569) are detected at 22 GHz, respectively with 39 mJy, 83 mJy. The measured flux (rms) variability is 13% and 8%, respectively for IC10 and NGC1569, while the mean flux uncertainty is 25% and 12%. Thus, the detection of the radio flux variability is at best marginal. Detecting flux variability of faint sources (i.e., 22 GHz flux < 200 mJy) seems challenging with the KVN single dishes. Combining with the 1.4 GHz flux measurements from the NVSS, we find that these two galaxies have a steep spectrum, supporting that the radio sources are AGNs. Instead of a monitoring, single-epoch multi-band observations can be effective for identifying radio AGNs by providing the constraint of the radio continuum slope.