Single-dish Radio Telescope Research Articles

The Simultaneous Medicina-Planck Experiment: data acquisition, reduction and first results

The Simultaneous Medicina-{\it Planck} Experiment (SiMPlE) is aimed at observing a selected sample of 263 extragalactic and Galactic sources with the Medicina 32-m single dish radio telescope in the same epoch as the Planck satellite observations. The data acquired with a frequency coverage down to 5 GHz, also combined with Planck at frequencies above 30 GHz, will constitute a useful reference catalogue of bright sources over the whole Northern hemisphere. Furthermore, source observations performed in different epochs and comparison with other catalogues allow the investigation of source variabilities on different timescales. In this work, we describe the sample selection, the on-going data acquisition campaign, the data reduction procedures, the developed tools, and the comparison with other data-sets. We present the data at 5 and 8.3 GHz for the SiMPlE Northern Sample consisting of 79 sources with $\delta \geq 45^\circ$ selected in our catalogue and observed during the first 6 months of the project. A first analysis of their spectral behaviour and long-term variability is also presented.

Dimension Optimization Design of the Stewart Platform in FAST

China is now building the largest single dish radio telescope in the world in Guizhou province, which is called Five-hundred meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST). A Stewart platform is introduced in FAST as an accuracy adjustable mechanism for feed receivers. The main purpose of this paper is to discuss dimension optimization design method of the Stewart platform based on three optimization objective functions. The optimization objective functions can reflect the operability and accuracy of the Stewart platform, and optimization design flow is presented according to the important degree of the three optimization objectives. Finally, a set of optimized parameters is obtained, and the study in this paper provides a basis for the coming optimization the feed support system for FAST in the next step.

V-FASTR: THE VLBA FAST RADIO TRANSIENTS EXPERIMENT

Recent discoveries of dispersed, non-periodic impulsive radio signals with single-dish radio telescopes have sparked significant interest in exploring the relatively uncharted space of fast transient radio signals. Here we describe V-FASTR, an experiment to perform a blind search for fast transient radio signals using the Very Long Baseline Array (VLBA). The experiment runs entirely in a commensal mode, alongside normal VLBA observations and operations. It is made possible by the features and flexibility of the DiFX software correlator that is used to process VLBA data. Using the VLBA for this type of experiment offers significant advantages over single-dish experiments, including a larger field of view, the ability to easily distinguish local radio-frequency interference from real signals and the possibility to localize detected events on the sky to milliarcsecond accuracy. We describe our software pipeline, which accepts short integration (~ms) spectrometer data from each antenna in real time during correlation and performs an incoherent dedispersion separately for each antenna, over a range of trial dispersion measures. The dedispersed data are processed by a sophisticated detector and candidate events are recorded. At the end of the correlation, small snippets of the raw data at the time of the events are stored for further analysis. We present the results of our event detection pipeline from some test observations of the pulsars B0329+54 and B0531+21 (the Crab pulsar).

THE FIVE-HUNDRED-METER APERTURE SPHERICAL RADIO TELESCOPE (FAST) PROJECT

Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) is a Chinese mega-science project to build the largest single dish radio telescope in the world. Its innovative engineering concept and design pave a new road to realize a huge single dish in the most effective way. FAST also represents Chinese contribution in the international efforts to build the square kilometer array (SKA). Being the most sensitive single dish radio telescope, FAST will enable astronomers to jump-start many science goals, such as surveying the neutral hydrogen in the Milky Way and other galaxies, detecting faint pulsars, looking for the first shining stars, hearing the possible signals from other civilizations, etc. The idea of sitting a large spherical dish in a karst depression is rooted in Arecibo telescope. FAST is an Arecibo-type antenna with three outstanding aspects: the karst depression used as the site, which is large to host the 500-meter telescope and deep to allow a zenith angle of 40 degrees; the active main reflector correcting for spherical aberration on the ground to achieve a full polarization and a wide band without involving complex feed systems; and the light-weight feed cabin driven by cables and servomechanism plus a parallel robot as a secondary adjustable system to move with high precision. The feasibility studies for FAST have been carried out for 14 years, supported by Chinese and world astronomical communities. Funding for FAST has been approved by the National Development and Reform Commission in July of 2007 with a capital budget ~ 700 million RMB. The project time is 5.5 years from the commencement of work in March of 2011 and the first light is expected to be in 2016. This review intends to introduce the project of FAST with emphasis on the recent progress since 2006. In this paper, the subsystems of FAST are described in modest details followed by discussions of the fundamental science goals and examples of early science projects.

DEPLETION OF CCS IN A CANDIDATE WARM-CARBON-CHAIN-CHEMISTRY SOURCE L483

We have carried out an observation of the CCS ($J_{N}$=2$_{1}-$1$_{0}$) line with the Very Large Array in its D-configuration toward a protostellar core L483 (IRAS~18140$-$0440). This is a candidate source of the newly found carbon-chain rich environment called "Warm-Carbon-Chain-Chemistry (WCCC)", according to the previous observations of carbon-chain molecules. The CCS distribution in L483 is found to consist of two clumps aligned in the northwest-southeast direction, well tracing the CCS ridge observed with the single-dish radio telescope. The most remarkable feature is that CCS is depleted at the core center. Such a CCS distribution with the central hole is consistent with those of previously observed prestellar and protostellar cores, but it is rather unexpected for L483. This is because the distribution of CS, which is usually similar to that of CCS, is centrally peaked. Our results imply that the CCS ($J_{N}$=2$_{1}-$1$_{0}$) line would selectively trace the outer cold envelope in the chemically less evolved phase that is seriously resolved out with the interferometric observation. Thus, it is most likely that the high abundance of CCS in L483 relative to the other WCCC sources is not due to the activity of the protostar, although it would be related to its younger chemical evolutionary stage, or a short timescale of the prestellar phase.

INFRARED DARK CLOUDS IN THE SMALL MAGELLANIC CLOUD?

We have applied the unsharp-masking technique to the 24 $\mu$m image of the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC), obtained with the Spitzer Space Telescope, to search for high-extinction regions. This technique has been used to locate very dense and cold interstellar clouds in the Galaxy, particularly infrared dark clouds (IRDCs). Fifty five candidate regions of high-extinction, namely high-contrast regions (HCRs), have been identified from the generated decremental contrast image of the SMC. Most HCRs are located in the southern bar region and mainly distributed in the outskirts of CO clouds, but most likely contain a significant amount of H2. HCRs have a peak-contrast at 24 $\mu$m of 2 - 2.5 % and a size of 8 - 14 pc. This corresponds to the size of typical and large Galactic IRDCs, but Galactic IRDCs are 2 - 3 times darker at 24 $\mu$m than our HCRs. To constrain the physical properties of the HCRs, we have performed NH3, N2H+, HNC, HCO+, and HCN observations toward one of the HCRs, HCR LIRS36-EAST, using the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Mopra single-dish radio telescope. We did not detect any molecular line emission, however, our upper limits to the column densities of molecular species suggest that HCRs are most likely moderately dense with n ~ 10^{3} cm-3. This volume density is in agreement with predictions for the cool atomic phase in low metallicity environments. We suggest that HCRs may be tracing clouds at the transition from atomic to molecule-dominated medium, and could be a powerful way to study early stages of gas condensation in low metallicity galaxies. Alternatively, if made up of dense molecular clumps < 0.5 pc in size, HCRs could be counterparts of Galactic IRDCs, and/or regions with highly unusual abundance of very small dust grains.

The Green Bank Telescope

The Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory is the world's premiere single-dish radio telescope operating at centimeter to long millimeter wavelengths. This paper describes the history, construction, and main technical features of the telescope.

Radio Astronomers Go for High Gain With Mammoth Telescope

Construction is about to commence on the world's biggest single-dish radio telescope, which will take aim at exotic beasts such as pulsars and dark galaxies.

Full Stokes polarimetric observations with a single-dish radio telescope

The study of the linear and circular polarization in AGN allows one to gain detailed information about the properties of the magnetic fields in these objects. However, especially the observation of circular polarization (CP) with single-dish radio-telescopes is usually difficult because of the weak signals to be expected. Normally CP is derived as the (small) difference of two large numbers (LHC and RHC); hence an accurate calibration is absolutely necessary. Our aim is to improve the calibration accuracy to include the Stokes parameter V in the common single-dish polarimetric measurements, allowing a full Stokes study of the source under examination. A detailed study, up to the 2nd order, of the Mueller matrix elements in terms of cross-talk components allows us to reach the accuracy necessary to study circular polarization. The new calibration method has been applied to data taken at the 100-m Effelsberg radio-telescope during regular test observations of extragalactic sources at 2.8, 3.6, 6 and 11 cm. The D-terms in phase and amplitude appear very stable with time and the few known values of circular polarization have been confirmed. It is shown that, whenever a classical receiver and a multiplying polarimeter are available, the proposed calibration scheme allows one to include Stokes V in standard single-dish polarimetric observations as difference of two native circular outputs.

Deriving AGN properties from circular and linear radio polarimetry

AbstractWe report multi-frequency circular polarization measurements for the radio source 0056-00 taken at the Effelsberg 100-m radio telescope. The data reduction is based on a new calibration procedure that allows the contemporary measurement of the four Stokes parameters with single-dish radio telescopes.

Campaign Bailout for Arecibo?

Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has introduced legislation (S. 2862) to keep federal funds flowing to the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Her support for the world's largest single-dish radio telescope, which is slated to lose National Science Foundation support by 2011 ( Science , 21 September 2007, p. [1663][1]), would benefit both her home state of New York—the observatory is operated by Cornell University—and the economy of Puerto Rico, which holds a presidential primary on 7 June. Clinton, who trails Barack Obama in the race for the Democratic nomination, hailed Arecibo's “remarkable tools” for understanding the universe and “the path-blazing accomplishments of these New Yorkers.” Puerto Rico's delegate introduced a similar bill last fall in the House of Representatives. A Cornell spokesperson said the university was “absolutely pleased” by Clinton's move. [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.317.5845.1663a

The FAST telescope and its possible contribution to high precision astrometry

AbstractIn this report we give a brief introduction to the Five hundred meter Apeture Spherical Telescope (FAST). Some possible contributions of FAST to high precision astrometry are discussed. The illuminated aperture of FAST in normal operation mode is 300m in diameter. With special feeding mechanism, the whole 500m aperture could be used. FAST will cover frequencies from 70MHz to 3GHz, and observe at zenith angle of up to 40 degrees without a notable gain loss. As the most sensitive single dish radio telescope, FAST would be able to discover more mega-masers and measure the radial velocities of masers with higher precision. This may yield more delicate dynamics of their maser spots. FAST will increase the precision of time of arrival (ToA) measurements for pulsars. This will help in detecting the stochastic gravitational wave background and in establishing an independent timing standard based on the long-term stability of the rotations of a group of millisecond pulsars. FAST might also work as a very powerful ground station for the future space missions. In a three-way communication mode, FAST should be able to provide precise ranging and Doppler measurements. Moreover, by joining the international VLBI network, FAST would help to improve the precision of the VLBI astrometry measurements.

The On The Fly imaging technique

The On-The-Fly (OTF) imaging technique enables single-dish radio telescopes to construct images of small areas of the sky with greater efficiency and accuracy. This paper describes the practical application of the OTF imaging technique. By way of example the implementation of the OTF imaging technique at the NRAO 12 Meter Telescope is described. Specific requirements for data sampling, image formation, and Doppler correction are discussed.

Early stages of star formation

The study of the earliest stages of star formation in molecular clouds is one of the fields that should benefit most from ALMA. Improving our understanding of these deeply embedded stages is crucial to gain insight into the origin of stellar masses and binary systems. While the use of large single-dish (sub)millimeter radiotelescopes and existing interferometers has led to good progress on the overall density structure of isolated prestellar cores and young protostars, many questions remain open concerning, e.g., their fragmentation properties and detailed kinematics. Furthermore, the classical paradigm for the formation of single low-mass stars in well-separated, magnetized prestellar cores has been challenged on the grounds that most young stars actually belong to multiple systems and/or coherent clusters. A new paradigm based on supersonic turbulence has emerged which emphasizes the role of dynamical interactions between individual (proto)stars in cluster-forming clumps. The debate is far from settled and ALMA will greatly help to discriminate between these two paradigms.

Constraining dark matter through 21-cm observations

Beyond reionization epoch cosmic hydrogen is neutral and can be directly observed through its 21 cm line signal. If dark matter (DM) decays or annihilates the corre- sponding energy input affects the hydrogen kinetic temperature and ionized fraction, and contributes to the Lybackground. The changes induced by these processes on the 21 cm signal can then be used to constrain the proposed DM candidates, among which we select the three most popular ones: (i) 25-keV decaying sterile neutrinos, (ii) 10-MeV decaying light dark matter (LDM) and (iii) 10-MeV annihilating LDM. Although we find that the DM effects are considerably smaller than found by previous studies (due to a more physical description of the energy transfer from DM to the gas), we conclude that combined observations of the 21 cm background and of its gradient should be able to put constrains at least on LDM candidates. In fact, LDM decays (an- nihilations) induce differential brightness temperature variations with respect to the non decaying/annihilating DM case up to ��Tb = 8 (22) mK at about 50 (15) MHz. In principle this signal could be detected both by current single dish radio telescopes and future facilities as LOFAR; however, this assumes that ionospheric, interference and foreground issues can be properly taken care of.

Turbulence in the G333 molecular cloud

We are studying the molecular clouds in the region around G333.6-0.2 in a number of 3-mm transitions from different molecular species, to probe, among other things, the turbulent properties. The observations are being made by on-the-fly mapping with the 22-m diameter single-dish Mopra radio telescope. See Bains et al. (2006) and Cunningham et al. (2006 in these proceedings) for more details. During 2004 and 2005 we obtained 13 CO (1 – 0), C18O, CS (2 – 1) and C34S data. Using the different molecular tracers gives complementary information about the gas density structure, due to the different critical densities, and different isotopomers allows correction for optical depth effects.

A NEXT GENERATION MULTI-BEAM FOCAL PLANE ARRAY RECEIVER OF TRAO FOR 86-115 GHZ BAND

The noise temperature of existing millimeter-wave receivers is already within two or three times quantum noise limit. One of practical ways to increase the observation speed of single dish radio telescope without longer integration time is use of multi-beam focal plane array receiver as demonstrated in several large single dish radio telescopes. In this context the TRAO (Taeduk Radio Astronomy Observatory), which operates a 143n Cassegrain radio telescope, is planning to develop a 4 x 4 beams focal plane array SIS receiver system for 86-115 GHz band. Even though millimeter-wave HEMT LNA-based receivers approach the noise temperature comparable to the SIS receiver at W-band, it is believed that the receiver based on SIS mixer seems to offer a bit more advantages. The critical part of the multi-beam array receiver will be sideband separating SIS mixers. Employing such a type of SIS mixer makes it possible to simplify the quasi-optics of receiver. Otherwise, an SSB filter should be used in front of the mixer or some sophisticated post-processing of observation data is needed. In this paper we will present a preliminary design concept and components needed for the development of a new 3 mm band multi-beam focal plane array receiver.

A Digital Archive of H i 21 Centimeter Line Spectra of Optically Targeted Galaxies

We present a homogeneous compilation of H I spectral parameters extracted from global 21 cm line spectra for some 9000 galaxies in the local universe (heliocentric velocity -200 < V☉ < 28,000 km s-1) obtained with a variety of large single-dish radio telescopes but reanalyzed using a single set of parameter extraction algorithms. Corrections to the observed H I line flux for source extent and pointing offsets and to the H I line widths for instrumental broadening and smoothing are applied according to model estimates to produce a homogenous catalog of derived properties with quantitative error estimates. Where the redshift is available from optical studies, we also provide flux measurements for an additional 156 galaxies classified as marginal H I detections and rms noise limits for 494 galaxies classified as nondetections. Given the diverse nature of the observing programs contributing to it, the characteristics of the combined data set are heterogeneous, and as such, the compilation is neither integrated H I line flux nor peak flux limited. However, because of the large statistical base and homogenous reprocessing, the spectra and spectral parameters of galaxies in this optically targeted sample can be used to complement data obtained at other wavelengths to characterize the properties of galaxies in the local universe and to explore the large-scale structures in which they reside.

Spectroscopy of Low Surface Brightness Galaxies with the Hobby-Eberly Telescope

We have obtained low resolution spectra of nineteen red and blue low surface brightness galaxies, using the Marcario Low Resolution Spectrograph on the 9.2m Hobby-Eberly Telescope. These galaxies form a very heterogeneous class, whose spectra qualitatively resemble those of high surface brightness galaxies covering the full range of spectra seen in galaxies of Hubble types from E to Irr. We use a combination of emission line (EW(Halpha), NII/Halpha) and absorption line (Mgb, Hbeta, ) based diagnostics to investigate the star-formation and chemical enrichment histories of these galaxies. These are diverse, with some galaxies having low metallicity and very young mean stellar ages, and other galaxies showing old, super-solar metallicity stellar populations. In contrast with some previous studies which found a strong trend of decreasing metallicity with decreasing central surface brightness, we find a population of galaxies with low surface brightness and near-solar metallicity. Correlations between several of the gas phase and stellar population age and metallicity indicators are used to place contraints on plausible evolutionary scenarios for LSB galaxies. The redshift range spanned by these galaxies is broad, with radial velocities from 3400 km/s to more than 65000 km/s. A subset of the sample galaxies have published HI redshifts and gas masses based on observations with the Arecibo 305m single-dish radio telescope, which place these galaxies far off of the mean Tully-Fisher relation. Our new optical redshifts do not agree with the published HI redshifts for these galaxies. Most of the discrepancies can be explained by beam confusion in the Arecibo observations, causing erroneous HI detections for some of the galaxies.

Galactic Plane Surveys at Low Frequencies

Until recently, high angular resolution and high sensitivity surveys of the radio emission from the plane of our Galaxy were available only at frequencies of several GHz, where large single dish radio telescopes provide arcminute scale angular resolution. At these frequencies thermal radiation from HII regions and diffuse ionized gas comprise a major component of the Galactic emission. Advances in wide field interferometric imaging techniques now make it possible to carry out high sensitivity surveys of the Galaxy with arcminute scale angular resolution at 1.4 GHz and below. Over the past few years initial synthesis surveys have been made. More ambitious surveys that combined sensitive continuum observations with full polarimetry and images of the 3-dimensional structure of atomic hydrogen gas at pc scales are currently underway in the northern (DRAO) and southern (ATNF) hemispheres. The interstellar medium of the Galaxy contains structure on all spatial scales, and these surveys combined data from aperture synthesis telescopes and signal dish antennas to provide full spatial frequency coverage to the resolution limit. Preliminary results reveal wide-spread features and processes in the the interstellar medium that are not readily visible by other means, including, for example, unusual atomic hydrogen structures related to the vertical transfer of matter and radiation between the disk and halo of the Galaxy, Faraday rotation structures that allow study of the magnetic field and diffuse ionized component in the plane of the Galaxy, and a cold atomic phase of the neutral medium that may provide a link between global shock phenomena in the galaxy and the formation of molecular clouds.