During the course of analysing both single-dish and very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) data obtained from the Korean VLBI Network (KVN), we found a systematic oset between ux density measurements from dierent antennas. We were able to attribute a majority of the systematic osets to changes in the \a priori" antenna gains, which were found to have varied up to 10 percent at 22 GHz and up to 30 percent at 43 GHz. Using historical calibrator observations, we present a revised set of gains that may be applied to KVN data taken from 2015 August to 2019 January. Application of the revised gains to the KVN results in a consistency of correlated ux density measurements between the three baselines of approximately ve percent. We found that images from the recalibrated data typically have a 50 percent higher dynamic range, with some cases showing an increase of dynamic range of up to a factor of three.
A long standing problem in the study of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) is that the observed VLBI core is in fact a blending of the actual AGN core (classically defined by the = 1 surface) and the upstream regions of the jet or optically thin flows. This blending may cause some biases in the observ- ables of the core, such as its flux density, size or brightness temperature, which may lead to misleading interpretation of the derived quantities and physics. We study the effects of such blending under the view of the Korean VLBI Network (KVN) for a sample of AGNs at 43 GHz by comparing their observed properties with observations obtained using the Very Large Baseline Array (VLBA). Our results suggest that the observed core sizes are a factor 11 larger than these of VLBA, which is similar to the factor expected by considering the different resolutions of the two facilities. We suggest the use of this factor to consider blending effects in KVN measurements. Other parameters, such as flux density or brightness temperature, seem to possess a more complicated dependence.
We present a study of the inexplicit connection between radio jet activity and γ-ray emission of BL Lacertae (BL Lac; 2200+420). We analyze the long-term millimeter activity of BL Lac via interferometric observations with the Korean VLBI Network (KVN) obtained at 22, 43, 86, and 129 GHz simultaneously over three years (from January 2013 to March 2016); during this time, two γ-ray outbursts (in November 2013 and March 2015) can be seen in γ-ray light curves obtained from Fermi observations. The KVN radio core is optically thick at least up to 86 GHz; there is indication that it might be optically thin at higher frequencies. To first order, the radio light curves decay exponentially over the time span covered by our observations, with decay timescales of 41185 days, 352±79 days, 310±57 days, and 283±55 days at 22, 43, 86, and 129 GHz, respectively. Assuming synchrotron cooling, a cooling time of around one year is consistent with magnetic field strengths B ∼ 2 μT and electron Lorentz factors γ ∼ 10 000. Taking into account that our formal measurement errors include intrinsic variability and thus over-estimate the statistical uncertainties, we nd that the decay timescale scales with frequency τ ν - 0.2. This relation is much shallower than the one expected from opacity effects (core shift), but in agreement with the (sub-)mm radio core being a standing recollimation shock. We do not find convincing radio flux counterparts to the γ-ray outbursts. The spectral evolution is consistent with the `generalized shock model' of Valtaoja et al. (1992). A temporary increase in the core opacity and the emergence of a knot around the time of the second -ray event indicate that this γ-ray outburst might be an `orphan' are powered by the `ring of fire' mechanism.
The calibration of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) data has long been a time consuming process. The Korean VLBI Network (KVN) is a simple array consisting of three identical antennas. Because four frequencies are observed simultaneously, phase solutions can be transferred from lower frequencies to higher frequencies in order to improve phase coherence and hence sensitivity at higher frequencies. Due to the homogeneous nature of the array, the KVN is also well suited for automatic calibration. In this paper we describe the automatic calibration of single-polarisation KVN data using the KVN Pipeline and comparing the results against VLBI data that has been manually reduced. We nd that the pipelined data using phase transfer produces better results than a manually reduced dataset not using the phase transfer. Additionally we compared the pipeline results with a manually reduced phase-transferred dataset and found the results to be identical.