VLBI

Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) can form powerful collimated relativistic outflows, called jets, which carry a fraction of the total gravitational energy released during the accretion of matter onto a supermassive black hole (SMBH) at the center of the AGN. These jets emit brightly across the electromagnetic spectrum, often exhibit apparent superluminal motion, and are involved in the regulation of star formation and galaxy evolution via AGN feedback in the interstellar medium (ISM). At radio wavelengths, AGN jets can be studied with submilliarcsecond angular resolution, using the technique of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI). The chair for astronomy is leading the largest long-term VLBI monitoring program of AGN jets in the Southern Hemisphere, combining radio telescopes in Australia and South Africa: the TANAMI program. We offer BSc and MSc thesis projects to study the structural evolution and dynamics of individual TANAMI sources in the context of multi-band variability, high-energy astrophysics or neutrino astronomy.

More information:

TANAMI program website: https://pulsar.sternwarte.uni-erlangen.de/tanami/

Recent Publications: 

• Benke et al. 2024, https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.10206
• Angioni et al. 2019, https://arxiv.org/abs/1906.08342

Previous student theses based on TANAMI data can be accessed at https://www.physik.uni-wuerzburg.de/astro/archiv/abschlussarbeiten/ such as:

• W. Schulga, 2023, BSc thesis
• R. Pare, 2019, MSc thesis
• L. Wachter, 2018, BSc thesis
• A. Hekalo, 2018, MSc thesis

Contact persons:
Prof. Dr. Matthias Kadler: matthias.kadler@uni-wuerzburg.de