Proposal code

w309

Proposal title

Ultra-Aligned Jets in the Pearson-Readhead Survey

The

Investigators and their

Affiliations

P.I. M. L. Lister JPL, Caltech (USA)
B. G. Piner JPL, Caltech (USA)
S. J. Tingay ATNF, Australia
R. A. Preston JPL (USA)

Proposal Abstract

As part of our current program to study bending and projection effects in a well-selected sample of AGNs with space VLBI at 5 GHz, we propose to obtain additional HALCA and VLBA observations of two Pearson-Readhead survey quasars with peculiar parsec-scale jet structure. These AGNs exhibit severe jet bending within ~ 5 mas of the core, and are highly core-dominated on arcsecond scales. They also possess unusual parsec-scale diffuse haloes of radio emission centered on the core component. These properties suggest that they are examples of ``ultra-aligned'' relativistic jets oriented extremely close to our line of sight. We intend to use the high-resolution capability of HALCA at 1.6 GHz, plus multi-frequency observations with the VLBA, to trace these distinctive jet structures on a variety of physical scales, and investigate the extreme limits of projection and Doppler beaming effects in AGNs.

The full Cover Sheets (compressed post-script, typically 50kbytes) can be retrieved. Note that many proposals were reduced in extent by the Scientific Review Committee (e.g. by reducing the number of experiments), however the Cover Sheets contain the full proposal as submitted. Also note that AO3 proposals were submitted in October 1999, and information such as affiliations and contact details has changed for some proposers since that time. The Cover Sheets (and the details on this page, which were derived from the Cover Sheets) may therefore have changed.