• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.40 no.2
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• pp.52.3-53
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• 2015

It has been known that there is "dark gas" invisible either in 21-cm HI or 2.6-mm CO emission which are general tracers of atomic and molecular gas, respectively. Many researchers consider that the dark gas is "Dark Molecular Gas (DMG)" composed of CO-free $H_2$ in the intermediate zone between atomic and full-fledged molecular gas and that HCO+ and OH molecules are good tracers of the DMG since they can form in much lower $H_2$ column densities where CO does not. We have carried out HCO+ J=1-0 absorption observations toward nine bright extragalactic radio continuum sources using the KVN 21-m telescopes as single dishes. We detected HCO+ absorption lines toward two sources. We derive HCO+ and $H_2$ column densities or their limits, and discuss the implications of our results.

• The Bulletin of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.65.1-65.1
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• 2020

We present high-resolution, high-sensitivity continuum data of NGC 4522 observed at 3 cm (X-band) and 10 cm (S-band) in full polarization mode using the JVLA. This observation has 2 - 4 times better spatial resolution and 2 - 5 times better sensitivity compared to previous continuum observations. NGC 4522 is a Virgo spiral galaxy undergoing active ram pressure stripping. This galaxy is particularly well known for the CO emission detected outside its stellar disk, some of which coincides with the extraplanar HI gas and Halpha patches. The major goal of our JVLA observation is to leverage our understanding of the influence of the ram pressure on the general ISM field and multi-phase medium. By combining our new deep radio continuum data and previous observations, we will investigate how the B-field properties can be affected by the ram pressure, and what roles the B-field plays in the stripping process of the multi-phased ISM and in the star formation activity when the ram pressure is present.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.41 no.3
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• pp.77-81
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• 2008

As a continuation of a previous work by Park et al. (2006), we have developed a two-element radio interferometer that can measure both the phase and amplitude of a visibility function. Two small radio telescopes with diameters of 2.3 m are used as before, but this time an external reference oscillator is shared by the two telescopes so that the local oscillator frequencies are identical. We do not use a hardware correlator; instead we record signals from the two telescopes onto a PC and then perform software correlation. Complex visibilities are obtained toward the sun at ${\lambda}\;=\;21\;cm$, for 24 baselines with the use of the earth rotation and positional changes of one element, where the maximum baseline length projected onto UV plane is ${\sim}\;90{\lambda}$. As expected, the visibility amplitude decreases with the baseline length, while the phase is almost constant. The image obtained by the Fourier transformation of the visibility function nicely delineates the sun, which is barely resolved due to the limited baseline length. The experiment demonstrates that this system can be used as a "toy" interferometer at least for the education of (under)graduate students.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.47 no.5
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• pp.195-199
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• 2014

We present a GUI-based interactive Python program, VIMAP, which generates radio spectral index maps of active galactic nuclei (AGN) from Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) maps obtained at different frequencies. VIMAP is a handy tool for the spectral analysis of synchrotron emission from AGN jets, specifically of spectral index distributions, turn-over frequencies, and core-shifts. In general, the required accurate image alignment is difficult to achieve because of a loss of absolute spatial coordinate information during VLBI data reduction (self-calibration) and/or intrinsic variations of source structure as function of frequency. These issues are overcome by VIMAP which in turn is based on the two-dimensional cross-correlation algorithm of Croke & Gabuzda (2008). In this paper, we briefly review the problem of aligning VLBI AGN maps, describe the workflow of VIMAP, and present an analysis of archival VLBI maps of the active nucleus 3C 120.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.39 no.2
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• pp.51-56
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• 2006

We report the development of a semi-VLBI observation system operating at 21 cm and present the measurement of visibility function toward the sun using this system. The system consists of two 2.3 meter antennas with a maximum separation of 35 meter, a conventional high speed data acquisition system, and a set of programs for software correlation. Since two local oscillators of receiver modules are independent, data had to be fringe-fitted to yield the visibility amplitude. It is found that the visibility amplitude decreases and then bounces back as baseline increases. We confirm that solar disk with brighter limb best explains the measured visibility amplitude.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.56 no.2
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• pp.159-168
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• 2023

The main goal of the Korean VLBI Network Calibrator Survey (KVNCS) is to expand the VLBI calibrators catalog for KVN, KaVA (KVN and VERA Array), EAVN (East-Asian VLBI Network), and other extended regions. The second KVNCS (KVNCS2) aimed to detect VLBI fringes of new candidates for calibrators in the K band. Out of the 1533 sources whose single-dish flux density in the K band was measured with KVN telescopes (Lee et al. 2017), 556 sources were observed with KVN in the K band. KVNCS2 confirmed the detection of VLBI fringes of 424 calibrator candidates over a single baseline. All detected sources had a high Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) of >25. Finally, KVNCS2 confirmed 347 new candidates as VLBI calibrators in the K band, resulting in a 5% increase in the sky coverage compared to previous studies. The spatial distribution was quasi-uniform across the observable region (Dec. > -32.5°). In addition, the possibility as calibrator candidates for the detected sources was checked, using an analysis of the flux-flux relationship. Ultimately, the KVNCS catalog will not only become the VLBI calibrator list but is also useful as a database of compact radio sources for astronomical studies.

• Journal of The Korean Astronomical Society
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• v.48 no.5
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• pp.299-311
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• 2015

We report first results from KVN and VERA Array (KaVA) VLBI observations obtained in the frame of our Plasma-physics of Active Galactic Nuclei (PAGaN) project. We observed eight selected AGN at 22 and 43 GHz in single polarization (LCP) between March 2014 and April 2015. Each source was observed for 6 to 8 hours per observing run to maximize the uv coverage. We obtained a total of 15 deep high-resolution images permitting the identification of individual circular Gaussian jet components and three spectral index maps of BL Lac, 3C 111 and 3C 345 from simultaneous dual-frequency observations. The spectral index maps show trends in agreement with general expectations – flat core and steep jets – while the actual value of the spectral index for jets shows indications for a dependence on AGN type. We analyzed the kinematics of jet components of BL Lac and 3C 111, detecting superluminal proper motions with maximum apparent speeds of about 5c. This constrains the lower limits of the intrinsic component velocities to ~ 0.98c and the upper limits of the angle between jet and line of sight to ~20°. In agreement with global jet expansion, jet components show systematically larger diameters d at larger core distances r, following the global relation d ≈ 0.2r, albeit within substantial scatter.