VLA FRAMEx. I. Wideband Radio Properties of the AGN in NGC 4388

Abstract

We present the first results from Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) observations as a part of the Fundamental Reference Active Galactic Nucleus (AGN) Monitoring Experiment, a program to understand the relationship between AGN accretion physics and wavelength-dependent position as a function of time. With this VLA survey, we investigate the radio properties from a volume-complete sample of 25 hard X-ray-selected AGNs using the VLA in its wideband mode. We observed the targets in the A-array configuration at 4–12 GHz with all polarization products. In this work, we introduce our calibration and imaging methods for this survey, and we present our results and analysis for the radio-quiet AGN NGC 4388. We calibrated and imaged these data using the multiterm, multifrequency synthesis imaging algorithm to determine its spatial, spectral, and polarization structure across a continuous 4–12 GHz band. In the AGN, we measure a broken power law spectrum with α = − 0.06 below a break frequency of 7.3 GHz and α = − 0.34 above. We detect polarization at subarcsecond resolution across both the AGN and a secondary radio knot. We compare our results to ancillary data and find that the VLA radio continuum is likely due to AGN winds interacting with the local interstellar medium that gets resolved away at subparsec spatial scales as probed by the Very Long Baseline Array. A well-known ionization cone to the southwest of the AGN appears likely to be projected material onto the underside of the disk of the host galaxy.

Keywords

• Radio astronomy
• Active galaxies
• Radio active galactic nuclei