Anne-Kathrin Baczko
PhD Thesis: Multi frequency VLBI observations of the active galaxy NGC1052
For my PhD I designed a project to study in detail the double-sided jet in the radio galaxy NGC 1052 from scales of 102 to 106 Schwarzschild radii at multiple frequencies. The goal of my thesis was to understand how jets evolve in this double-sided system. Do they evolve symmetrically? How fast are both jets? What is the impact of the surrounding torus? To answer the questions I successfully proposed for observations with the VLBA, GMVA and RadioAstron covering the frequency range from 1.5 GHz to 86 GHz. In collaboration with Christian Fromm from the University of Wuerzburg to better understand the underlying Physics by combining my observational results, providing jet properties as expansion profiles and location of local maxima, with numerical simulations.
Within the course of the project I developed data reduction and analysis tools, mainly based on Python. As part of my PhD project I carried out large parts of the correlation of an RadioAstron observation of NGC 1052 at the DiFX software correlator in Bonn under the supervision of Dr. Gabriele Bruni (responsible for RadioAstron correlation at the MPIfR at this time).
About Me: I was always fascinated by the world around me and eager to understand the underlying principles of nature. This encouraged me to study Physics. Already during my first Bachelor years I had the opportunity to work on MOJAVE data of Ap Librae under the supervision of Matthias Kadler and Joern Wilms, which initiated my interest in the technique of VLBI and AGN jets. I obtained my Bachelor and Masters’ degree at the Friedrich-Alexander University of Erlangen-Nürnberg in collaboration with the University of Würzburg, working on the active nucleus of the galaxy NGC 1052 under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Joern Wilms and Prof. Dr. Matthias Kadler in 2012 and 2015, respectively. Finally, I started my PhD continuing my research on NGC 1052 at the MPIfR to shed light on how symmetric jets evolve in a double-sided jet system.
Application to NGC 1052