First Simultaneous Dual-Frequency Phase Referencing VLBI Observation with VERA

Abstract

Abstract We present the results of the first simultaneous dual-frequency phase referencing VLBI observation with VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry (VERA). The experiment was designed to simultaneously observe two adjacent VLBI sources at two different frequencies to test the feasibility of multifrequency phase referencing for the Korean VLBI Network (KVN). The KVN has introduced a multifrequency receiver system that performs simultaneous observations at four frequencies, such as 22, 43, 86, and 129 GHz, in order to calibrate the atmospheric phase fluctuations at 43, 86, or 129 GHz from the phase at 22 GHz. A pair of two bright continuum sources, a BL Lac object NRAO 512 (22 GHz) and a quasar 3C 345 (43 GHz), with a separation angle of 0.$^{\!\!\!\circ}$5 were observed simultaneously. The connected fringe phases of 22 and 43 GHz show very tight correlation that is proportional to the frequency, exhibiting a clearly non-dispersive characteristic of the neutral troposphere to the radio systems. The residual phase, which is the difference of the fringe phase between 43 GHz and a scaled-up phase of 22 GHz by multiplying the frequency ratio of 1.926 ($\nu_{43}/\nu_{22}$), remained constant for more than 2 hr, and showed a weak sinusoidal variation at the first and second half of the observations, respectively. The Allan standard deviation of the residual phase is mostly dominated by white phase noise, implying that the dual-frequency phase referencing can compensate for the atmospheric phase fluctuation effectively. The coherence function of the residual phase indicates that an arbitrarily long-time integration of the fringe visibility is attainable. There is an excellent agreement between the self-calibrated and the phase referenced images of 3C 345. These results are promising for realizing multifrequency phase referencing with the KVN and opening new perspectives in the multifrequency study of VLBI.