We present results on the intrinsic brightness temperature of a sample of compact radio sources observed at 86 GHz using the Global Millimeter VLBI Array. We use the observed brightness temperatures at 86 GHz and the observed superluminal motions at 15 GHz for the sample in order to constrain the characteristic intrinsic brightness temperature of the sample. With a statistical method for studying the intrinsic brightness temperatures of innermost jet cores of compact radio sources, assuming that all sources have the same intrinsic brightness temperature and the viewing angles of their jets are around the critical value for the maximal apparent speed, we find that sources in the sample have a characteristic intrinsic brightness temperature, T0 = 4.8+2.6 −1.5 × 109 K, which is lower than the equipartition temperature for the condition that the particle energy equals to the magnetic field energy. Our results suggest that the VLBI cores seen at 86 GHz may be representing a jet region where the magnetic field energy dominates the total energy in the jet.
We have decomposed the 11-cm radio continuum emission of the W51 complex into thermal and non-thermal components. The distribution of the thermal emission has been determined by analyzing HI, CO, and IRAS 60-μm data. We have found a good correlation between the 11-cm thermal continuum and the 60- 11m emissions, which is used to obtain the thermal and non-thermal 11-cm continuum maps of the W51 complex. Most of the thermal continuum is emanating from the compact H II regions and their low-density ionized envelopes in W51A and W51B. All the H II regions, except G49.1-0.4 in W51B, have associated molecular clumps. The thermal radio continuum fluxes of the compact H II regions are proportional to the CO fluxes of molecular clumps. This is consistent with the previous results that the total mass of stars in an H II region is proportional to the mass of the associated molecular clump. According to our result, there are three non-thermal continuum sources in W51: G49.4-0.4 in W51A, a weak source close to G49.2-0.3 in W51B, and the shell source W51C. The non-thermal flux of G49.5-0.4 at 11-cm is ~28 Jy, which is ~25% of its total 11-cm flux. The radio continuum spectrum between 0.15 and 300 GHz also suggests an excess emission over thermal free-free emission. We show that the excess emission can be described as a non-thermal emission with a spectral index α≃-1.0 (Sv∝Va) attenuated by thermal free-free absorptions at low-frequencies. The non-thermal source close to G49.2-0.3 is weak (~9 Jy). The nature of the source is not known and the reality of the non-thermal emission needs to be confirmed. The non~thermal shell source W51C has a 11-cm flux of ~130Jy and a spectral index α≃-0.26.
Multi-frequency polarization observations of Abell 695 are reported here. The brightest radio source 0838+325, which was previously classified as a wide angled head-tail radio source, is, in the present observations, resolved into two separable sources, a head-tail source 0838+325 AB and a diffuse one 0838+325C. The radio-tail shows high degree of linear polarization( ~ 50 -25%) along the radio-tail, suggesting that the interaction with its surrounding intracluster medium (ICM) is not highly turbulent. With the present data, thermal particle densities at the locations of these sources are estimated to be n > 10 -5 cm-3 .
The HI features associated with HII regions and radio sources in the galactic-plane are searched in the Maryland-Green Bank Galactic 21-cm Line Survey. Among the twenty-eight such objects, twenty-five show HI depression features, two no feature, and an emission feature with excess HI brightness temperature. Most of these feature are surrounded by strong HI emissions. The depth of the HI depression is proportional to the radio continuum brightness temperature. The angular dimensions of the HI feature and radio source are comparable. The small HI depressions shown at the positions of HII region located in the outer solar circle are considered to be HI self-absorption features of very cold HI gas.