Time-Resolved Spectral Analysis of Blazar 0716+714

Abstract

As electromagnetic (EM) waves from sources such as blazars travel through the intergalactic medium (IGM), they are slowed by electrons; a phenomenon called dispersion delay [2]. We study the propagation effects in emissions of EM waves from blazar source BL 0716+714 by estimating the average electron density, or dispersion measure (DM), of the IGM on a line of sight to the blazar. Measuring the variations in these effects with time allow us to understand the properties of the intervening material. Toward this goal we analyzed months of archived observations of BL 0716+714 taken by the Allen Telescope Array (ATA). The ATA's correlator produces cross-power vs. frequency spectra for every baseline (distance between a pair of antennas) in ten-second intervals. To reduce this immense load of data we used a technique based on interferometry called bispectrum, which does not depend on complicated array calibration and simplifies our work. The bispectrum multiplies baselines, three at a time, so that they form a closed loop, then the cube root of spectra are averaged [1]. This technique is independent of phase errors associated with any individual antenna and has a better SNR ratio than simply taking the average of all the baselines. We developed a numerical analysis program that takes in archived blazar files containing correlation data, computes the bispectrum, and outputs FITS images for each day of observations. The results show that our observations do not have sufficient sensitivity to reveal blazar variations in the frequency ranges that were studied. It is suggested that future observations at higher frequencies and/or with another telescope having greater sensitivity would reveal the time/frequency dependence of emission structure that would allow measurements of electron content. This work shows that but bispectrum is a useful tool for rapid characterization of interferometer data that does not require interferometer caclibration which could introduce artifacts into radio light curves.References:[1] Law C.J. and Bower G.C. (2012) Astrophysical Journal, 749:143[2] Rani B. et al. (2013) A&A, ms, 1-25.