Effects of Phase Characteristics of Telescopes on Same-Beam Differential VLBI

Abstract

Phase characteristics, which are systematic phase offsets across the main beam of an actual telescope, may be a problem for achieving the same-beam differential very long baseline interferometer (VLBI) technique. This technique is essential for differential phase delay measurements such as those used in the Japanese Selenological and Engineering Explorer (SELENE) project, where the phase has to be determined to an accuracy of 0.075 radians rms. Accurate measurement and correction of phase characteristics are very important. The phase characteristics at 2.2375 and 2.2807 GHz of the 20-m and 10-m telescopes at Mizusawa were measured to an error of approximately 0.04 radians rms. The phase characteristics were 0.06 radians rms for the 20-m and 0.055 radians rms for the 10-m telescopes in the main beams, and the post-fit residuals decreased to 0.03 and 0.04 radians rms, respectively, after correcting by using quadratic formulas. These results confirmed the effectiveness of the same-beam differential VLBI technique for VLBI observations of SELENE