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e-EVN observations of V404 Cyg in outburst

ATel #7742; V. Tudose (ISS), Z. Paragi (JIVE), J. C.A. Miller-Jones (ICRAR-Curtin), A. Rushton (Oxford), J. Yang (Chalmers), R. Fender (Oxford), S. Corbel (CEA), M. Garrett (ASTRON/Leiden), R. Spencer (Manchester)
on 1 Jul 2015; 16:43 UT
Credential Certification: Valeriu Tudose (tudose@spacescience.ro)

Subjects: Radio, Binary, Black Hole, Transient

Referred to by ATel #: 7959

Following the outburst of the transient X-ray binary V404 Cyg, we observed the system at 1.6 GHz on 2015 June 23/24 between 22:08-07:58 UT with the European VLBI Network (EVN), using the e-VLBI technique. The participating radio telescopes were Effelsberg, Hartebeesthoek, Jodrell Bank MkII, Medicina, Onsala85, Shanghai, Torun, Westerbork (5 telescopes of the phased-array).

Due to the heavy scattering towards the target, the longer baselines with Shanghai were significantly affected and had to be deleted. Significant variations in the flux density of the source (by a factor 1.5) also influenced the quality of the radio image. However, we clearly detected V404 Cyg as a point-like source (beam FWHM: 30 x 13 mas; PA: 83 deg) with a peak brightness of 166 +/- 5 mJy/beam at the position (J2000):

RA: 20h24m03.8183983
Dec: +33d52m01.840768"

We estimate the systematic error in astrometry to be of a few mas due to poorly modeled ionosphere and large line-of-sight scattering.

We do not see any evidence for extended radio emission above a 3-sigma rms noise level of 0.5 mJy/beam, at scales from 5 mas up to 200 mas.

We take the opportunity to note that these observations represent the last occasion on which the MFFE receivers and TADU system were used to form the Westerbork tied array. We thank the "old" Westerbork for the excellent VLBI science it has generated over the last few decades and look forward to the "new" Westerbork system employing the APERTIF Phased Array Feeds.

The European VLBI Network (EVN) is a joint facility of European, Chinese, South African, and other radio astronomy institutes funded by their national research councils. The observations presented here were obtained under the project code ET031A.