A VLA monitoring study of JVAS B1422+231: investigation of time delays and detection of extrinsic variability

We present an analysis of two seasons of archival, multifrequency VLA monitoring of the quad lens system JVAS B1422+231, the 15-GHz data of which have previously been published. The 8.4- and 15-GHz variability curves show significant variability, especially in polarization, but lack features on short time-scales that would be necessary for an accurate measurement of the very short predicted time delays (less than or similar to 1 d) between the three bright images. Time delays can only realistically be measured to the very faint image D and for the first time we detect its long-term variability and determine its polarization properties. However, image-dependent (extrinsic) variability (including variations on time-scales of hours) is present in multiple images and the magnitude of this is largest in image D at 15 GHz (+/- 10 per cent). As the variations appear to increase in amplitude with frequency, we suggest that the most likely cause is microlensing by compact objects in the lensing galaxy. Combining the monitoring data allows us to detect a faint arc of emission lying between images B and C and the jets responsible for this are imaged using archival VLBA data. Finally, we have also measured the rotation measure of the three bright images and detected the polarization properties of image D.