| Description: | My project involved studying the radio jets and their impact on the gas close to the supermassive black hole at very high spatial resolution (pc-scale) in a radio source J1435+5051. I used observations of neutral atomic hydrogen (HI) obtained with EVN, VLBA, eMERLIN and GBT for this purpose. I made the first pc-scale continuum image of this source. I found that it exhibits an unusual U-shaped morphology at parsec scales unlike most compact radio sources. It was highly challenging to calibrate the data due to RFI and other issues and therefore we could not reach the desired noise level. However, I detected the atomic gas (HI) in absorption tentatively against the two brightest continuum components. The two absorption spectra shown in the image show no indication of rotation in the gas, implying a disturbed morphology. I further compared this with the HI absorption profile detected with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) at kpc scales and found that only part of the HI is detected at pc scales. This suggests that HI is highly diffuse and therefore not entirely detected at high spatial resolution. This project adds to a small number of sources with detailed pc-scale studies of atomic gas. The origin of the unusual U-shaped radio continuum structure is still a puzzle we are trying to solve! |
