Intraday Radio Variability in Active Galactic Nuclei

Abstract

Rapid flux density variations on timescales of the order of a day or less (Intraday Variability, IDV) in the radio regime are a common phenomenon within the blazar class. Observations with the 100m telescope of the MPIfR showed that the variations occur not only in total intensity, but also in the polarized intensity and in polarization angle. Here we present an overview of our IDV-observations and discuss briefly some models which may explain the effect.

6 pages, 3 figures, needs "elsart" style package. To be published in New Astronomy Reviews, special issue: Proceedings of the 4th EVN/JIVE VLBI Symposium, Eds. Garrett, M.A., Campbell, R.M., & Gurvits, L.J