Monitoring the Microarcsecond Quasar J1819+3845

Abstract

AbstractWe present the results of a year-long monitoring campaign on J1819+3845. We interpret the results of this WSRT campaign to infer critical source parameters such as source lifetime and structure on tens of microarcseconds. The long lifetime of the source at such high brightness temperatures requires continuous energy injection or exotic emission processes. We have previously interpreted the extreme scintillation of Jl819+3845 as due to a relatively nearby (~ 20 pc) scattering screen. We show this screen has a velocity w.r.t. the LSR of ~ 25 km s−1, as measured by the changing scintillation properties throughout the year: the ‘velocity parallax’.