Symmetric achromatic variability (SAV) is a rare form of radio variability in blazars that has been attributed to gravitational milli-lensing by a ∼10 2 –10 5 M ⊙ mass condensate. Four SAVs have been identified between 1980 and 2020 in the long-term radio monitoring data of the blazar PKS 1413 + 135. We show that all four can be fitted with the same, unchanging, gravitational lens model. If SAV is due to gravitational milli-lensing, PKS 1413 + 135 provides a unique system for studying active galactic nuclei with unprecedented microarcsecond resolution, as well as for studying the nature of the milli-lens itself. We discuss two possible candidates for the putative milli-lens: a giant molecular cloud hosted in the intervening edge-on spiral galaxy, and an undetected dwarf galaxy with a massive black hole. We find a significant dependence of SAV crossing time on frequency, which could indicate a fast shock moving in a slower underlying flow. We also find tentative evidence for a 989 day periodicity in the SAVs, which, if real, makes possible the prediction of future SAVs: the next three windows for possible SAVs begin in 2022 August, 2025 May, and 2028 February.

We present a deep survey of the Super-Cluster Assisted Shear Survey (SuperCLASS) supercluster – a region of sky known to contain five Abell clusters at redshift z ∼ 0.2 – performed using the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager (AMI) Large Array (LA) at 15.5 GHz. Our survey covers an area of approximately 0.9 deg2. We achieve a nominal sensitivity of 32.0 μJy beam−1 towards the field centre, finding 80 sources above a 5σ threshold. We derive the radio colour–colour distribution for sources common to three surveys that cover the field and identify three sources with strongly curved spectra – a high-frequency-peaked source and two GHz-peaked-spectrum sources. The differential source count (i) agrees well with previous deep radio source counts, (ii) exhibits no evidence of an emerging population of star-forming galaxies, down to a limit of 0.24 mJy, and (iii) disagrees with some models of the 15 GHz source population. However, our source count is in agreement with recent work that provides an analytical correction to the source count from the Square Kilometre Array Design Study (SKADS) Simulated Sky, supporting the suggestion that this discrepancy is caused by an abundance of flat-spectrum galaxy cores as yet not included in source population models.

The candidate black hole X-ray binary Swift J1753.5-0127 faded to quiescence in 2016 November, after a prolonged outburst that was discovered in 2005. Nearly three months later the system displayed renewed activity that lasted through 2017 July. Here, we present radio and X-ray monitoring over 3 months of the renewed activity to study the coupling between the jet and the inner regions of the disk/jet system. Our observations cover low X-ray luminosities that have not historically been well-sampled (Lx 2e33 - 1e36 erg/s; 1-10 keV), including time periods when the system was both brightening and fading. At these low luminosities Swift J1753.5-0127 occupies a parameter space in the radio/X-ray luminosity plane that is comparable to "canonical" systems (e.g., GX 339-4), regardless of whether the system was brightening or fading, even though during its >11-year outburst Swift J1753.5-0127 emitted less radio emission from its jet than expected. We discuss implications for the existence of a single radio/X-ray luminosity correlation for black hole X-ray binaries at the lowest luminosities (Lx < 1e35 erg/s), and we compare to supermassive black holes. Our campaign includes the lowest luminosity quasi-simultaneous radio/X-ray detection to date for a black hole X-ray binary during its rise out of quiescence, thanks to early notification from optical monitoring combined with fast responses from sensitive multiwavelength facilities.

After more than 26 years in quiescence, the black hole transient V404 Cyg went into a luminous outburst in 2015 June, and additional activity was detected in late December of the same year. Here, we present an optical spectroscopic follow-up of the December mini-outburst, together with X-ray, optical and radio monitoring that spanned more than a month. Strong flares with gradually increasing intensity are detected in the three spectral ranges during the similar to 10 d following the Swift trigger. Our optical spectra reveal the presence of a fast outflowing wind, as implied by the detection of a P-Cyg profile (He I-5876 angstrom) with a terminal velocity of similar to 2500 km s(-1). Nebular-like spectra - with an H alpha equivalent width of similar to 500 angstrom - are also observed. All these features are similar to those seen during the main 2015 June outburst. Thus, the fast optical wind simultaneous with the radio jet is most likely present in every V404 Cyg outburst. Finally, we report on the detection of a strong radio flare in late 2016 January, when X-ray and optical monitoring had stopped due to Sun constraints.

The Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array (HERA) is a radio telescope dedicated to observing large scale structure during and prior to the epoch of reionization. It is a second generation instrument currently under development and concurrently being deployed in the Karoo, South Africa. This paper describes the design considerations of the new 50 Ω RF system being developed for the telescope, taking into account a number of important design factors, such as matching, noise switching and RF-over-Fibre (RFoF) technology.

We present observations and analysis of a sample of 123 galaxy clusters from the 2013 Planck catalogue of Sunyaev-Zel'dovich sources with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager (AMI), a ground-based radio interferometer. AMI provides an independent measurement with higher angular resolution, 3 arcmin compared to the Planck beams of 5-10 arcmin. The AMI observations thus provide validation of the cluster detections, improved positional estimates, and a consistency check on the fitted 'size' ($\theta_{s}$) and 'flux' ($Y_{\rm tot}$) parameters in the Generalised Navarro, Frenk and White (GNFW) model. We detect 99 of the clusters. We use the AMI positional estimates to check the positional estimates and error-bars produced by the Planck algorithms PowellSnakes and MMF3. We find that $Y_{\rm tot}$ values as measured by AMI are biased downwards with respect to the Planck constraints, especially for high Planck-SNR clusters. We perform simulations to show that this can be explained by deviation from the 'universal' pressure profile shape used to model the clusters. We show that AMI data can constrain the $\alpha$ and $\beta$ parameters describing the shape of the profile in the GNFW model for individual clusters provided careful attention is paid to the degeneracies between parameters, but one requires information on a wider range of angular scales than are present in AMI data alone to correctly constrain all parameters simultaneously.

In this paper, we present Q-U-I JOint Tenerife Experiment (QUIJOTE) 10-20 GHz observations (194 h in total over approximate to 250 deg(2)) in intensity and polarisation of G159.6-18.5, one of the most widely studied regions harbouring anomalous microwave emission (AME). By combining with other publicly available intensity data, we achieve the most precise spectrum of the AME measured to date in an individual region, with 13 independent data points between 10 and 50 GHz being dominated by this emission. The four QUIJOTE data points provide the first independent confirmation of the downturn of the AME spectrum at low frequencies, initially unveiled by the COSMOlogical Structures On Medium Angular Scales experiment in this region. Our polarisation maps, which have an angular resolution of approximate to 1 degrees and a sensitivity of approximate to 25 mu K beam(-1), are consistent with zero polarisation. We obtain upper limits on the polarisation fraction of Pi < 6.3 and <2.8 per cent (95 per cent C.L.), respectively, at 12 and 18 GHz (Pi(AME) < 10.1 and <3.4 per cent with respect to the residual AME intensity), a frequency range where no AME polarisation observations have been reported to date. The combination of these constraints with those from other experiments confirm that all the magnetic dust models based on single-domain grains, and most of those considering randomly oriented magnetic inclusions, predict higher polarisation levels than is observed towards regions with AME. Also, neither of the two considered models of electric dipole emission seems to be compatible with all the observations together. More stringent constraints of the AME polarisation at 10-40 GHz are necessary to disentangle between different models, to which future QUIJOTE data will contribute.

We present an interesting SunyaevZeldovich (SZ) detection in the first of the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager (AMI) blind, degree-square fields to have been observed down to our target sensitivity of . In follow-up deep pointed observations the SZ effect is detected with a maximum peak decrement greater than eight times the thermal noise. No corresponding emission is visible in the ROSAT all-sky X-ray survey and no cluster is evident in the Palomar all-sky optical survey. Compared with existing SZ images of distant clusters, the extent is large (similar to 10 arcmin) and complex; our analysis favours a model containing two clusters rather than a single cluster. Our Bayesian analysis is currently limited to modelling each cluster with an ellipsoidal or spherical beta model, which does not do justice to this decrement. Fitting an ellipsoid to the deeper candidate we find the following. (a) Assuming that the Evrard et al. approximation to Press & Schechter correctly gives the number density of clusters as a function of mass and redshift, then, in the search area, the formal Bayesian probability ratio of the AMI detection of this cluster is 7.9 x 104:1; alternatively assuming Jenkins et al. as the true prior, the formal Bayesian probability ratio of detection is 2.1 x 105:1. (b) The cluster mass is . (c) Abandoning a physical model with number density prior and instead simply modelling the SZ decrement using a phenomenological beta model of temperature decrement as a function of angular distance, we find a central SZ temperature decrement of K this allows for cosmic microwave background primary anisotropies, receiver noise and radio sources. We are unsure if the cluster system we observe is a merging system or two separate clusters.

In our first paper we described three regions of the 9C survey of radio sources with the Ryle telescope at 15.2 GHz, constituting a total area of 520 deg^2 to a completeness limit of approximately 25 mJy. Here we report on a series of deeper regions, amounting to an area of 115 deg^2 complete to approximately 10 mJy and of 29 deg^2 complete to approximately 5.5 mJy. We have investigated the source counts and the distributions of the 1.4 to 15.2 GHz spectral index (alpha) for these deeper samples. The whole catalogue of 643 sources is available online. Down to our lower limit of 5.5 mJy we detect no evidence for any change in the differential source count from the earlier fitted count above 25 mJy. We have matched both our new and earlier catalogues with the NRAO VLA Sky Survey (NVSS) catalogue at 1.4 GHz. For samples of sources selected at 15.2 GHz, in three flux density ranges, we detect a significant shift in the median value of alpha; samples with higher flux densities have higher proportions of sources with flat and rising spectra. We suggest that this observed shift is consistent with a model containing two distinct source populations having differently sloped source counts. Samples selected at 1.4 GHz contain significantly smaller proportions of sources with flat and rising spectra. Also, in our area complete to approximately 10 mJy, we find 5 sources between 10 to 15 mJy, amounting to 4.3 per cent of sources in this range, with no counterpart in the NVSS catalogue. These results illustrate the problems inherent in using a low frequency catalogue to characterise the source population at a much higher frequency and emphasise the value of our blind 15.2 GHz survey.

We present observations of the Lynds' dark nebula LDN 1111 made at microwave frequencies between 14.6 and 17.2 GHz with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager. We find emission in this frequency band in excess of a thermal free-free spectrum extrapolated from data at 1.4 GHz with matched uv coverage. This excess is > 15 sigma above the predicted emission. We fit the measured spectrum using the spinning dust model of Draine & Lazarian and find the best-fitting model parameters agree well with those derived from the Scuba data for this object by Visser, Richer & Chandler.

The Arcminute Microkelvin Imager is a pair of interferometer arrays operating with six frequency channels spanning 13.9-18.2 GHz, with very high sensitivity to angular scales 30”-10'. The telescope is aimed principally at Sunyaev-Zel'dovich imaging of clusters of galaxies. We discuss the design of the telescope and describe and explain its electronic and mechanical systems.