A New Strategy for the Routine Detection & Imaging of Faint Radio Sources with VLBI

Abstract

In this paper I outline a new strategy for the routine detection and imaging of faint (sub-mJy and microJy) radio sources with VLBI and SVLBI. The strategy relies on a combination of in-beam phase-referencing, wide-field VLBI imaging and simultaneous correlation of multiple field centres. A combination of these techniques, together with the steeply rising radio source counts observed at cm wavelengths, permit routine high resolution observations of radio sources previously considered too faint for conventional VLBI.