We present partial results from our monitoring of the nuclear region of the starburst galaxy IC 694 (=Arp 299-A) at radio wavelengths, aimed at discovering recently exploded CCSNe, as well as to determine their rate of explosion, which carries crucia
l information on star formation rates and starburst scenarios at work. Two epochs of eEVN observations at 5.0 GHz, taken in 2008, revealed the presence of a rich cluster of compact radio emitting sources in the central 150 pc of the nuclear starburst in Arp 299A. The large brightness temperatures observed for the compact sources indicate a non-thermal origin for the observed radio emission, implying that most, if not all, of those sources were young radio supernovae (RSNe) and supernova remnants (SNRs). More recently, contemporaneous EVN observations at 1.7 and 5.0 GHz taken in 2009 have allowed us to shed light on the compact radio emission of the parsec-scale structure in the nucleus of Arp 299-A. Namely, our EVN observations have shown that one of the compact VLBI sources, A1, previously detected at 5.0 GHz, has a flat spectrum between 1.7 and 5.0 GHz and is the brightest source at both frequencies. The morphology, radio luminosity, spectral index and ratio of radio-to-X-ray emission of the A1-A5 region allowed us to identify A1-A5 with long-sought AGN in Arp 299-A. This finding may suggest that both starburst and AGN are frequently associated phenomena in mergers. Finally, we also note that component A0, identified as a young RSN, exploded at the mere distance of two parsecs from the putative AGN in Arp 299-A, which makes this supernova one of the closest to a central supermassive black hole ever detected.
High-resolution radio observations of nearby starburst galaxies have shown that the distribution of their radio emission consists of a compact (<150 pc), high surface brightness, central radio source immersed in a low surface brightness circumnuclear
halo. This radio structure is similar to that detected in bright Seyferts galaxies like NGC 7469 or Mrk 331, which display clear circumnuclear rings. While the compact, centrally located radio emission in these starbursts might be generated by a point-like source (AGN), or by the combined effect of multiple radio supernovae and supernova remnants (e.g., the evolved nuclear starburst in Arp~220), it seems well established that the circumnuclear regions of those objects host an ongoing burst of star-formation (e.g., NGC 7469; Colina et al. 2001, Alberdi et al. 2006). Therefore, high-resolution radio observations of Luminous Infra-Red Galaxies (LIRGs) in our local universe are a powerful tool to probe the dominant dust heating mechanism in their nuclear and circumnuclear regions. In this contribution, we show results obtained from VLA-A, MERLIN, and EVN (VLBI) radio observations of the galaxies NGC 7469 (D~70 Mpc) and IRAS 18293-3413 (D ~ 79 Mpc), where two extremely bright radio supernovae have been found. High-resolution studies of these and other LIRGs would allow us to determine the core-collapse supernova rate in them, as well as their star-formation rate.
We present new continuum VLA observations of the nearby Sy 1.5 galaxy NGC 5033, made at 4.9 and 8.4 GHz on 8 April 2003. Combined with VLA archival observations at 1.4 and 4.9 GHz made on 7 August 1993, 29 August 1999, and 31 October 1999, we sample
the galaxy radio emission at scales ranging from the nuclear regions (<~ 100 pc) to the outer regions of the disk (~ 40 kpc). The high-resolution VLA images show a core-jet structure for the Sy 1.5 nucleus. While the core has a moderately steep non-thermal radio spectrum (S_ u ~ u^alpha; alpha_{1.5}^{4.9} approx -0.4), the inner kpc region shows a steeper spectrum (alpha_{1.5}^{8.4} approx -0.9). This latter spectrum is typical of galaxies where energy losses are high, indicating that the escape rate of cosmic ray electrons in NGC 5033 is low. The nucleus contributes little to the total 1.4 GHz radio power of NGC 5033 and, based on the radio to far-infrared (FIR) relation, it appears that the radio and far-infrared emission from NGC 5033 are dominated by a starburst that during the last 10 Myr produced stars at a rate of ~2.8 M_sun/yr, yielding a supernova (type Ib/c and II) rate of 0.045 #/yr. This supernova rate corresponds to about 1 SN event every 22 yr. Finally, from our deep 8.4 GHz VLA-D image, we suggest the existence of a radio spur in NGC 5033, which could have been due to a hot superbubble formed as a consequence of sequential supernova explosions occurring during the lifetime of a giant molecular cloud.
