Eating VLBI: history, status,and perspectives
Marcello Giroletti
INAF Istituto di Radioastronomia

EAVN workshop, Ibaraki Univ., 25 September 2019

PeopleProf. Giovannini
M. Orienti
F. D’Ammando
C. Migoni
A. Melis
E. Egron
R. Lico (now Bonn)
G. Principe
E. Kravchenko…and more…
…and Kazuhiro Hada!

Outline•

Status in Italy•

Status in Europe (P. Colomer’s talk)•History and status of Eating VLBI ***MoA and Call for proposal!!!***•Science with Eating VLBI - so far and what’s next

VLBI in Italy•

National Institute for Astrophysics: operates two 32-m and one 64-m single
dish (Medicina, Noto, Sardinia)•Baseline length in range 580-893 km•

Frequency range between 1.4 and 43 GHz, potentially 86•

currently able to do 1.6, 7 and 22 GHz for all three stations•

All connected electronically in real time to Bologna•Bologna hosting data storage and software correlator facility

Sardinia, 64m

Noto, 32m

Medicina, 32m

Bologna,
DiFX correlator

Medicina(Mc)Noto (Nt)diameter

32m

32m

64m

activesurfaceNYYLY

Y/N (notoperational)

YS/XYYNCYY

N/Y(designed)

C - high

Y (not cooled) Y (not cooled)

Sardinia (Sr)YK

Y (2-beam)

YY (7-beam)

QNYW

N

N (beingconsidered)

N/Y(designed)
N (beingconsidered)

e-VLBI

YY

almost!

Mc
Mc

Nt

Sr

KVNTa

893*

592

8401

580

8639

Nt

13.5

Sr

5.5

6KVNTa17188783
7.5

K-band 5σ sensitivity (mJy)[5min @1Gbps]

baseline length (km)Status tables, 2017

* same as
T6-Ky!

Medicina(Mc)Noto (Nt)diameter

32m

32m

64m

activesurface

N/Y (funded)YYL

Y

Y

Y

S/X

Y

Y

NCY

Y

N/Y(designed)

C - high

Y (not cooled) Y (not cooled)

Sardinia (Sr)YK

Y (2-beam)Y

Y (7-beam)Q

N/Y (funded)Y

N/Y(designed)W

N/Y (funded) N/Y (funded) N/Y (funded)

e-VLBI

Y

Y

Y

Mc
Mc

Nt

Sr

KVNTa

893*5928401

5808639

Nt

13.5

Sr

5.5

6KVNTa17188783
7.5

K-band 5σ sensitivity (mJy)[5min @1Gbps]

baseline length (km)Status tables, 2019* same as
T6-Ky!

Challenges and opportunities•Stations active primarily in regular European VLBI Network activity and as
single dish•Few resources for coordination and support of nation-wide scale activities•

Other limits: three stations, low-mid frequency•

Science opportunities: mostly non-imaging: surveys, transients, alerts•

Great potential in sensitivity and angular resolution to be combined withother stations/networks:•Europe, East Asia, Africa, space

P. Colomer’s talkThe whole is more than thesum of its parts•

From Italy-Japan to “East Asia To Italy: Nearly Global VLBI”•Science, technology, and outreach activities•Frequency and baseline range•

Science topics (high energy, NLS1, astrometry, transients; geodesy andtime)•From one baseline to tens•

Role of Nanshan, and other stations…

Fermi Large Area Telescope•

PMN J0948+0022, global e-VLBI,
first collaboration with East Asia•

3C 84, bright Fermi source,collaboration with Nagai-san, andlater the Radioastron Giovannini
paper; also an Eating VLBI target(test and science)•TXS 0506+056: flares, ToOs, Eating VLBI data - and now more neutrinos
and more opportunities for science collaboration (and joint observations?)•OJ287 (see P18 by Jee Won Lee), and FR0 radio galaxies, stellar
evolution, and more…

The global e-VLBI campaign
on NLSy1 0948+0022•

First global e-VLBI campaign•

Australia, Japan, China,Europe (pre-KVN!)•

ν=22 GHz, full pol, 3 epochs•

Important early constraints
on new class of gamma-raysources•

Giroletti, …, Doi, Colomer,Kino, Phillips, et al. A&A 2011

3C 84, from GENJI to Radioastron•

A compact radio source, young/restarted, bright and interesting tomodel•

Turned out to be a bright gammaray source, too•Target of dense monitoring withVERA, up to Space VLBI•

Subject of 2018 Noto IAU
symposium “Perseus in Sicily”,
with important Italy-East Asia
leadership (SOC: Giroletti, Nagai,Asada, Bower, Yung)

Giovannini et al., Nat. Astr. 2018
Nagai, Orienti, Kino, Giovannini,
et al., 2012 MNRAS

Towards multi-messenger astrophysics•

Other multi-messenger (GW) and transientrelated opportunities for collaboration

54:00.0

More sources reported later: complex
framework, important to obtain data formore sources

48:00.0 27:50:00.0 52:00.0•

10.0 05.010:50:00.0
55.0 50.0 45.0 40.0 35.0 49:30.0
Right ascension

46:00.0

Observed with Eating VLBI, KVN, VLBA,and other MWL data

46:00.0•

44:00.0

Renewed interest in blazar parsec scale jets after claimof association to astrophysical neutrino from TXS
0506+056

Eating VLBI image
B. W. Sohn

38:00.0 27:40:00.0 42:00.0•

40.0 35.0 30.0 25.0 20.0 15.0 10.0 05.010:45:00.0
Right ascension

Astrometry and high frequency•Italian stations add east-west angular resolution
to EAVN imaging of M87•

Multi-epoch observations in 2017-18-19: sometechnical challenges but promising results andprogress•

Part of a larger picture ranging from EVN to EHT•

Astrometry in Mrk501 (Koyama et al.)Hada,Kravchenko, et al.

Other milestones•

Meetings•

Visits, students•

Outreach activities: video, exhibits•

Upgrade of INAF stations to high frequency (part of )•MoA INAF-KASI, 30 hours per semester for joint observations. CALL NOW!!!
••

goal of making it full “Eating VLBI” array

IAU LoI for GA 2021 focus meeting “Physics of relativistic jets on allscales” (SOC Chairs: Orienti, Sohn)”

Eating VLBI workshops•

2012, 2014, 2017, 2019; Bologna, Jeju•

Growth in attendance and diversity in age,provenance, gender, and science interests•

April ’19: 60 participants,
40 talks, 10 sessions,from transients tomeasurements of timeOutreach activities and added social value
A public outreach event in Bologna fair on “Astronomy
beyond… culture, tradition, and borders” (02/18)

Cultural/social aspects of the project• Fruitfulness of a worldwide cooperation(and wonders in some of its aspects,
such as the observations schedules)• Diversity and contact points of cultural
backgrounds
The charm of the scien5ﬁc contents• Black holes!
• Creation or adaptationof educational materials

6. EATING VLBI

from INAF Call for Proposal
Submission deadline is October 3rd 2019 at 12:00 CEST
https://www.radiotelescopes.inaf.it/proposal_main.html

According to the MoA between INAF and KASI up to 30 hours of observing time in VLBI mode are allocated toapproved EATING VLBI projects. These projects have to be submitted both to the Italian and Korean TACs withthe standard form selecting "EATING VLBI" mode in the project type. Approved projects will be observed up to 30hours/semester. Projects exceeding 30 hours will be scheduled together with all other projects according to theirrelative grades. PIs of these proposals must be associated with INAF or KASI.

Medicina(Mc)Noto (Nt)diameter

32m

32m

64m

activesurface

YYY

L

Y

Y

Y

S/XY

YNCY

Y

N/Y(designed)

C - high

Y (not cooled) Y (not cooled)

Sardinia (Sr)Y

KY (2-beam)

YY (7-beam)

QYYYWYYYe-VLBI

YYYMc
Mc

Nt

SrKVNTa

893*592

8401580

8639

Nt

13.5

Sr

5.5

6KVNTa17188783
7.5

K-band 5σ sensitivity (mJy)[5min @1Gbps]

baseline length (km)Status tables, 2022?

* same as
T6-Ky!

What’s next? The revolution oftransients

0-19 00 39.40••

Fast radio bursts (FAST???) Li’s talkGamma-ray bursts: EAVN
ToO an interesting
An’s talkexperience and an
important scientific result
GW - a challenge to thesensitivity of MWL
observations

Declination (J2000)•39.4550

100

FRB 150418,
MG+16

39.50

39.55

39.60

07 16 34.564

34.56034.55634.552Right Ascension (J2000)

34.548

Challenges•

Wide field instruments offering immense possibilities and demanding hugeresources•

What’s VLBI to offer? T. An’s talk•

What’s Eating VLBI to offer?
•High frequency niche - needs developments•

Real time on long baselines - coordination is key (recent steps forward)•Training and broadening of horizons - here we are!