First results from CARMA: the combined array for research in millimeter-wave astronomy

Abstract

The Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) comprises the millimeter-wave antennas of the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO), the Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association (BIMA) Array, and the new Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Array (SZA). CARMA consists of six 10.4-m, nine 6.1-m, and eventually eight 3.5-m diameter antennas on a site at elevation 2200 m in the Inyo Mountains near Bishop, California. The array will be operated by an association that includes the California Institute of Technology and the Universities of California (Berkeley), Chicago, Illinois (Urbana-Champaign), and Maryland. Observations will be supported at wavelengths of 1 cm, 3 mm, and 1.3 mm, on baselines from 5 m to 2 km. The initial correlator will use field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology to provide all single-polarization cross-correlations on two subarrays of 8 and 15 antennas with a total bandwidth of 8 GHz on the sky. The next generation correlator will correlate the full 23-antenna array in both polarizations. CARMA will support student training, technology development, and front-line astronomical research in a wide range of fields including cosmology, galaxy formation and evolution, star and planet formation, stellar evolution, chemistry of the interstellar medium, and within the Solar System, comets, planets, and the Sun. Commissioning of CARMA began in August 2005, after relocation of the antennas to the new site. The first science observations commenced in April 2006.