The high-resolution structure of the Centaurus A nucleus at 2.3 and 8.4 GHz

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Abstract

VLBI observations of the nucleus of Centaurus A have been made at two frequencies with an array of five Australian radio telescopes as part of the Southern Hemisphere VLBI Experiment (SHEVE). Observations were made at 2.3 GHz with all five antennas, while only two were employed at 8.4 GHz. At 2.3 GHz seven tracks in the (u,v) plane with coverage of 6-8 hr each were obtained, yielding significant information on the structure of the nuclear jet. At 8.4 GHz a compact unresolved core was detected as well. We find that the source consists of the compact self-absorbed core, a jet containing a set of three knots extending from 100 to 160 mas from the core, and a very long, narrow component elongated along the same position angle as the knots. The allowable range for the position angle of the jet is 51^deg^ +/- 3^deg^, in agreement with that of the radio and x-ray structure on arcsecond and arcminute scales. The jet has brightened at 2.3 GHz by ~4 Jy, a factor of nearly 3, since the early 1970s, 1.8 Jy of which has occurred in the last 2 yr with no discernable changes in structure.

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