2003/04/09 by K. I. Kellermann, Kellermann, K. I.
Physics and Astronomy · #Astrophysics (astro-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #astro-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.astro-ph/0304165
To be published in "Radio Astronomy at the Fringe", ASP Conf. Ser. Vol. 300, J. A. Zensus, M. H. Cohen, & E. Ros (Eds.). 8 pages, 1 figure, needs rafringe.sty
arxiv created 2003/04/09 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01
We review the observations of rapid flux density variations in compact radio sources, and discuss the inverse Compton limit to the maximum brightness temperature of incoherent synchrotron sources in comparison with recent VLBA observations. The apparent agreement of the theoretical brightness temperature limit due to inverse Compton cooling and the brightness temperatures observed by early VLBI observations appears to have been fortuitous. VLBA observations have greatly improved the quality of the data, but many of the early issues remain unresolved.