Scintillation of pulsar radio signals caused by the interstellar medium can in principle be used for interstellar interferometry. Changes in the dynamic spectra as a function of pulsar longitude were in the past interpreted as having spatially resolved the pulsar magnetosphere. Guided by this prospect we used very long baseline interferometry observations of PSR B1237+25 with the Arecibo and Green Bank radio telescopes at 324 MHz and analyzed such scintillation at separate longitudes of the pulse profile. We found that the fringe phase characteristics of the visibility function changed quasi-sinusoidally as a function of longitude. Also, the dynamic spectra from each of the telescopes shifted in frequency as a function of longitude. Similar effects were found for PSR B1133+16. However, we show that these effects are not signatures of having resolved the pulsar magnetosphere. Instead, the changes can be related to the effect of low-level digitizing of the pulsar signal. After correcting for these effects the frequency shifts largely disappeared. Residual effects may be partly due to feed polarization impurities. Upper limits for the pulse emission altitudes of PSR B1237+25 would likely be well below the pulsar light cylinder radius. In view of our analysis, we think that observations with the intent of spatially resolving the pulsar magnetosphere need to be critically evaluated in terms of these constraints on interstellar interferometry.

The Einstein Equivalence Principle (EEP) is a cornerstone of general relativity and predicts the existence of gravitational redshift. We report on new results of measuring this shift with RadioAstron (RA), a space very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) spacecraft launched into an evolving high eccentricity orbit around Earth with geocentric distances reaching 353 000 km. The spacecraft and ground tracking stations at Pushchino, Russia, and Green Bank, USA, were each equipped with a hydrogen maser frequency standard allowing a possible violation of the predicted gravitational redshift, in the form of a violation parameter e, to be measured. By alternating between RA's frequency referencing modes during dedicated sessions between 2015 and 2017, the recorded downlink frequencies can essentially be corrected for the non-relativistic Doppler shift. We report on an analysis using the Doppler-tracking frequency measurements made during these sessions and find epsilon = (2.1 +/- 3.3) x10(-4). We also discuss prospects for measuring e with a significantly smaller uncertainty using instead the time-domain recordings of the spacecraft signals and envision how 10(-7) might be possible for a future space VLBI mission.

We observed the scintillation pattern of nine bright pulsars at 324 MHz and three at 1.68 GHz and analyzed the wavenumber spectrum, which is related to electron density variations of the plasma turbulence of the interstellar medium (ISM). For all pulsars the frequency section of the autocorrelation function (ACF) of the dynamic spectra to at least 45% of the maximum corresponds to predictions of scattering theories with a range of power-law exponents of the wavenumber spectrum of 3.56 ≤ α ≤ 3.97 with errors ≤0.05 and a mean with standard deviation of 3.76 ± 0.13. The range includes α = 3.67 for the Kolmogorov spectrum. Similar results, although with larger errors, were found from the Fourier transform of the ACFs down to ∼10 −3 of the maximum. No clear case of a distinction between thin-screen and extended-medium scattering models was found. The average frequency profile of the scintles can be characterized for steep wavenumber spectra with α ≲ 4 by a cusp with a somewhat rounded peak. For flatter spectra, down to at least α ∼ 3.56 the cusp with its peak becomes more pronounced and its decay steepens. We discuss our findings in the context of the scattering characteristics of the ISM.

We assemble a large set of 2-10 GHz radio flux density measurements and upper limits of 294 different supernovae (SNe), from the literature and our own and archival data. Only 31% of SNe were detected. We characterize the SN radio lightcurves near the peak using a two-parameter model, with t(pk) being the time to rise to a peak and L-pk the spectral luminosity at that peak. Over all SNe in our sample at D < 100 Mpc, we find that t(pk) = 10(1.7 +/- 0.9) days and that L-pk = 10(25.5 +/- 1.6) erg s(-1) Hz(-1), and therefore that generally 50% of SNe will have L-pk L-pk values are similar to 30 times lower than those for only detected SNe. Types Ib/c and II (excluding IIn's) have similar mean values of L-pk but the former have a wider range, whereas Type IIn SNe have similar to 10 times higher values with L-pk = 10(26.5 +/- 1.1) erg s(-1) Hz(-1). As for t(pk), Type Ib/c have t(pk) of only 10(1.1 +/- 0.5) days while Type II have t(pk) = 10(1.6 +/- 1.0) and Type IIn the longest timescales with t(pk) = 10(3.1 +/- 0.7) days. We also estimate the distribution of progenitor mass-loss rates, (M) over dot, and find that the mean and standard deviation of log(10) ((M) over dot[M-circle dot yr(-1)]) are -5.4 +/- 1.2 (assuming v(wind) = 1000 km s(-1)) for Type Ib/c SNe, and -6.9 +/- 1.4 (assuming v(wind) = 10 km s(-1)) for Type II SNe excluding Type IIn.

U. Bach, N. Bartel, O. Bayandina, A. Belonenko, K. Belousov, M. Bietenholz, A. Biriukov, G. Cimò, C. Courde, D. Dirkx, D. Duev, A. Filetkin, G. Granato, L. Gurvits, A. Gusev, R. Haas, G. Herold, G. Ilin, A. Kahlon, B. Kanevsky, V. Kauts, G. Kopelyansky, A. Kovalenko, G. Kronschnabl, V. Kulagin, M. Lindqvist, J.E.J. Lovell, H. Mariey, J. McCallum, G. Molera Calvés, C. Moore, K. Moore, A. Neidhardt, N. Nunes, S. Pilipenko, C. Plötz, S. Pogrebenko, N. Porayko, J. Quick, V. Rudenko, S. Sazankov, A. Smirnov, V. Soglasnov, K. Sokolovsky, V. Stepanyants, P. de Vicente, J. Yang, M. Zakhvatkin et al.

We present an improved model for the antenna phase center motion effect for high-gain mechanically steerable ground-based and spacecraft-mounted antennas that takes into account non-perfect antenna pointing. Using tracking data of the RadioAstron spacecraft we show that our model can result in a correction of the computed value of the effect of up to 2×10-14 in terms of the fractional frequency shift, which is significant for high-accuracy spacecraft tracking experiments. The total fractional frequency shift due to the phase center motion effect can exceed 1×10-11 both for the ground and space antennas depending on the spacecraft orbit and antenna parameters. We also analyze the error in the computed value of the effect and find that it can be as large as 4×10-14 due to uncertainties in the spacecraft antenna axis position, ground antenna axis offset and misalignment, and others. Finally, we present a way to reduce both the ground and space antenna phase center motion effects by several orders of magnitude, e.g. for RadioAstron to below 1×10-16, by tracking the spacecraft simultaneously in the one-way downlink and two-way phase-locked loop modes, i.e. using the Gravity Probe A configuration of the communications links.

ABSTRACT We report on slow phase variations of the response of the space-ground radio interferometer RadioAstron during observations of pulsar B0329+54. The phase variations are due to the ionosphere and clearly distinguishable from effects of interstellar scintillation. Observations were made in a frequency range of 316–332 MHz with the 110-m Green Bank Telescope and the 10-m RadioAstron telescope in 1-h sessions on 2012 November 26, 27, 28, and 29 with progressively increasing baseline projections of about 60, 90, 180, and 240 thousand kilometres. Quasi-periodic phase variations of interferometric scintles were detected in two observing sessions with characteristic time-scales of 12 and 10 min and amplitudes of up to 6.9 radians. We attribute the variations to the influence of medium-scale Travelling Ionospheric Disturbances. The measured amplitude corresponds to variations in vertical total electron content in ionosphere of about $0.1\times 10^{16}\, \text{m}^{-2}$. Such variations would noticeably constrain the coherent integration time in VLBI studies of compact radio sources at low frequencies.

We report on our efforts to test the Einstein Equivalence Principle by measuring the gravitational redshift with the VLBI spacecraft RadioAstron, in an eccentric orbit around Earth with geocentric distances as small as similar to 7000 km and up to 350,000 km. The spacecraft and its ground stations are each equipped with stable hydrogen maser frequency standards, and measurements of the redshifted downlink carrier frequencies were obtained at both 8.4 and 15 GHz between 2012 and 2017. Over the course of the similar to 9 d orbit, the gravitational redshift between the spacecraft and the ground stations varies between 6.8 x 10(-10) and 0.6 x 10(-10). Since the clock offset between the masers is difficult to estimate independently of the gravitational redshift, only the variation of the gravitational redshift is considered for this analysis. We obtain a preliminary estimate of the fractional deviation of the gravitational redshift from prediction of epsilon = -0.016 +/- 0.003(stat) +/- 0.030(syst) with the systematic uncertainty likely being dominated by unmodelled effects including the error in accounting for the non-relativistic Doppler shift. This result is consistent with zero within the uncertainties. For the first time, the gravitational redshift has been probed over such large distances in the vicinity of Earth. About three orders of magnitude more accurate estimates may be possible with RadioAstron using existing data from dedicated interleaved observations combining uplink and downlink modes of operation. (C) 2019 COSPAR. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

The largest Key Science Program of the RadioAstron space VLBI mission is a survey of active galactic nuclei (AGN). The main goal of the survey is to measure and study the brightness of AGN cores in order to better understand the physics of their emission while taking interstellar scattering into consideration. In this paper we present detection statistics for observations on ground-space baselines of a complete sample of radio-strong AGN at the wavelengths of 18, 6, and 1.3 cm. Two-thirds of them are indeed detected by RadioAstron and are found to contain extremely compact, tens to hundreds of μas structures within their cores.

We report on the substructure of visibility functions in the delay domain of PSRs B0329+54, B0823+26, B0834+06, B1933+16, and B0833–45 (Vela) observed with Earth–Earth and RadioAstron space–Earth two-element interferometers at frequencies of 324 and 1668 MHz. All visibility functions display unresolved spikes distributed over a range of delays. They are due to band-limited scintillation noise and related to the scattering time. The envelopes for each but the Vela pulsar are well fit by a single Lorentzian, which we interpret as being indicative of isotropic scattering on the plane of the sky due to a thin scattering screen between the pulsar and us. In contrast, the envelope for the Vela pulsar needs to be mostly fit by at least two Lorentzians, a narrow and a broad one at the same zero delay. We interpret this characteristic as indicative of anisotropic scattering due to a more complex structure of scattering screens in the supernova remnant. The possibility of describing the delay visibility functions by Lorentzians is likely a general property of pulsars and offers a new way of describing the scattering parameters of the intervening interstellar medium. Furthermore, for all of our pulsars, the unresolved spikes in visibility functions of similar projected baselines were well correlated, indicating that the telescopes are located in the same diffraction spot. The correlation vanished for visibilities from largely different baselines, when some radio telescopes are not in the same spot.

We present the first extensive radio to gamma-ray observations of a fast-rising blue optical transient, AT 2018cow, over its first similar to 100 days. AT 2018cow rose over a few days to a peak luminosity L-pk similar to 4 x 10(44) erg s(-1), exceeding that of superluminous supernovae (SNe), before declining as L proportional to t(-2). Initial spectra at delta t less than or similar to 15 days were mostly featureless and indicated large expansion velocities v similar to 0.1c and temperatures reaching T similar to 3 x 10(4) K. Later spectra revealed a persistent optically thick photosphere and the emergence of H and He emission features with v similar to 4000 km s(-1) with no evidence for ejecta cooling. Our broadband monitoring revealed a hard X-ray spectral component at E >= 10 keV, in addition to luminous and highly variable soft X-rays, with properties unprecedented among astronomical transients. An abrupt change in the X-ray decay rate and variability appears to accompany the change in optical spectral properties. AT 2018cow showed bright radio emission consistent with the interaction of a blast wave with v(sh) similar to 0.1c with a dense environment (M similar to 10(-3)-10(-4) M-circle dot yr(-1) for v(w) = 1000 km s(-1)). While these properties exclude Ni-56-powered transients, our multiwavelength analysis instead indicates that AT 2018cow harbored a "central engine," either a compact object (magnetar or black hole) or an embedded internal shock produced by interaction with a compact, dense circumstellar medium. The engine released similar to 10(50)-10(51.5) erg over similar to 10(3)-10(5) s and resides within low-mass fast-moving material with equatorial-polar density asymmetry (M-ej,M- fast less than or similar to 0.3 M-circle dot). Successful SNe from low-mass H-rich stars (like electron-capture SNe) or failed explosions from blue supergiants satisfy these constraints. Intermediate-mass black holes are disfavored by the large environmental density probed by the radio observations.

We present an approach to testing the gravitational redshift effect using the RadioAstron satellite. The experiment is based on a modification of the Gravity Probe A scheme of nonrelativistic Doppler compensation and benefits from the highly eccentric orbit and ultra-stable atomic hydrogen maser frequency standard of the RadioAstron satellite. Using the presented techniques we expect to reach an accuracy of the gravitational redshift test of order 10−5, a magnitude better than that of Gravity Probe A. Data processing is ongoing, our preliminary results agree with the validity of the Einstein Equivalence Principle.

The RadioAstron ground-space interferometer provides the highest angular resolution achieved now in astronomy. The detection of interferometric fringes from quasars with this angular resolution on baselines of 100–200 thousand km suggests the brightness temperatures which exceed the Compton limit by two orders of magnitude. Polarimetric measurements on ground-space baselines have revealed fine structure testifying to recollimation shocks on scales of 100–250 μas and a helical magnetic field near the base of radio emission in BL Lacertae. Substructure within a the scattering disk of pulsar emission on interferometer baselines (from 60000 to 250000 km) was discovered. This substructure is produced by action of the interstellar interferometer with an effective baseline of about 1 AU and the effective angular resolution of better than 1 μas. Diameters of scattering disks were measured for several pulsars, and distances to diffusing screens were evaluated. The ground-space observations of sources of the maser radiation in lines of water and hydroxyl have shown that the maser sources in star-forming regions remain unresolved on baselines, which considerably exceed the Earth diameter. These very compact and bright features with angular sizes of about 20–60 μas correspond to linear sizes of about 5–10 million km (several solar diameters).

Supernovae and gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are among the brightest events in the universe. Excluding Type Ia supernovae and short GRBs, they are the result of the core collapse of a massive star with material being ejectedwith speeds of several 1000 km/s to nearly the speed of light, and with a neutron star or a black hole left over as the compact remnant of the explosion. Synchrotron radiation in the radio is generated in a shell when the ejecta interact with the surrounding medium and possibly also in the central region near the compact remnant itself. VLBI has allowed resolving some of these sources and monitoring their expansion in detail, thereby revealing characteristics of the dying star, the explosion, the expanding shock front, and the expected compact remnant. We report on updates of some of the most interesting results that have been obtained with VLBI so far. Movies of supernovae are available from our website. They show the evolution from shortly after the explosion to decades thereafter, in one case revealing an emerging compact central source, which may be associated with shock interaction near the explosion center or with the stellar corpse itself, a neutron star or a black hole.

A test of a cornerstone of general relativity, the gravitational redshift effect, is currently being conducted with the RadioAstron spacecraft, which is on a highly eccentric orbit around Earth. Using ground radio telescopes to record the spacecraft signal, synchronized to its ultra-stable on-board H-maser, we can probe the varying flow of time on board with unprecedented accuracy. The observations performed so far, currently being analyzed, have already allowed us to measure the effect with a relative accuracy of $4\times10^{-4}$. We expect to reach $2.5\times10^{-5}$ with additional observations in 2016, an improvement of almost a magnitude over the 40-year old result of the GP-A mission.

The RadioAstron ground–space interferometer has been used to measure the angular sizes of the scattering disks of the three distant pulsars B1641–45, B1749–28, and B1933+16. The observations were carried out with the participation of the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope; two 32-m telescopes at Torun, Poland and Svetloe, Russia (the latter being one antenna of the KVAZAR network); the Saint Croix VLBA antenna; the Arecibo radio telescope; the Parkes, Narrabri (ATCA), Mopra, Hobart, and Ceduna Australian radio telescopes; and the Hartebeesthoek radio telescope in South Africa. The full widths at half maximum of the scattering disks were 27 mas at 1668 MHz for B1641–45, 0.5 mas at 1668 MHz for B1749–28, and 12.3 at 316 MHz and 0.84 mas at 1668 MHz for B1933+16. The characteristic time scales for scatter-broadening of the pulses on inhomogeneities in the interstellar plasma τsc were also measured for these pulsars using various methods. Joint knowledge of the size of the scattering disk and the scatter-broadening time scale enables estimation of the distance to the effective scattering screen d. For B1641–45, d = 3.0 kpc for a distance to the pulsar D = 4.9 kpc, and for B1749–28, d = 0.95 kpc for D = 1.3 kpc. Observations of B1933+16 were carried out simultaneously at 316 and 1668 MHz. The positions of the screen derived using the measurements at the two frequencies agree: d 1 = 2.6 and d 2 = 2.7 kpc, for a distance to the pulsar of 3.7 kpc. Two screens were detected for this pulsar from an analysis of parabolic arcs in the secondary dynamic spectrum at 1668 MHz, at 1.3 and 3.1 kpc. The scattering screens for two of the pulsars are identified with real physical objects located along the lines of sight toward the pulsars: G339.1–04 (B1641–45) and G0.55–0.85 (B1749–28).

ABSTRACT We discovered fine-scale structure within the scattering disk of PSR B0329+54 in observations with the RadioAstron ground–space radio interferometer. Here we describe this phenomenon, characterize it with averages and correlation functions, and interpret it as the result of decorrelation of the impulse-response function of interstellar scattering between the widely separated antennas. This instrument included the 10 m Space Radio Telescope, the 110 m Green Bank Telescope, the 14 × 25 m Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope, and the 64 m Kalyazin Radio Telescope. The observations were performed at 324 MHz on baselines of up to 235,000 km in 2012 November and 2014 January. In the delay domain, on long baselines the interferometric visibility consists of many discrete spikes within a limited range of delays. On short baselines it consists of a sharp spike surrounded by lower spikes. The average envelope of correlations of the visibility function shows two exponential scales, with characteristic delays of τ 1 = 4.1 ± 0.3 μ s and τ 2 = 23 ± 3 μ s , indicating the presence of two scales of scattering in the interstellar medium. These two scales are present in the pulse-broadening function. The longer scale contains 0.38 times the scattered power of the shorter one. We suggest that the longer tail arises from highly scattered paths, possibly from anisotropic scattering or from substructure at large angles.