Rachael Padman

The James Clerk Maxwell telescope legacy survey of nearby star-forming regions in the gould belt

This paper describes a James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) legacy survey that has been awarded roughly 500 hr of observing time to be carried out from 2007 to 2009. In this survey, we will map with SCUBA-2 (Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array 2) almost all of the well-known low-mass and intermediate-mass star-forming regions within 0.5 kpc that are accessible from the JCMT. Most of these locations are associated with the Gould Belt. From these observations, we will produce a flux-limited snapshot of star formation near the Sun, providing a legacy of images, as well as point-source and extended-source catalogs, over almost 700 deg(2) of sky. The resulting images will yield the first catalog of prestellar and protostellar sources selected by submillimeter continuum emission, and should increase the number of known sources by more than an order of magnitude. We will also obtain with the array receiver HARP (Heterodyne Array Receiver Program) CO maps, in three CO isotopologues, of a large typical sample of prestellar and protostellar sources. We will then map the brightest hundred sources with the SCUBA-2 polarimeter (POL-2), producing the first statistically significant set of polarization maps in the submillimeter. The images and source catalogs will be a powerful reference set for astronomers, providing a detailed legacy archive for future telescopes, including ALMA, Herschel, and JWST.

Radiation patterns of few-moded horns and condensing lightpipes

Abstract We analyse condensing lightpipes of the form often used to couple an infrared detector to a relatively slow optical system. The response in a given direction is expressed in terms of the radiation patterns of the different waveguide modes propagating in the lightpipe and throat section. Such lightpipes are seen to be just a generalization of the electromagnetic horn antennas often used to illuminate radiotelescopes and other reflector antennas. The results of our analysis are compared with ray-tracing results for horns operating in the short wavelength geometrical optics limit: excellent agreement is obtained. This new analysis is equally valid in the long wavelength case pertaining for most FIR and submm detector systems, where only a few spatial modes propagate and the radiation pattern cannot be adequately determined by any other means.

Observational Properties of Molecular Outflows

Molecular outflows are intimately related to the highly collimated Herbig-Haro jets emanating from young stars. In consequence, the usual dynamical timescale significantly underestimates the true age of an outflow. If we correct for this factor, and assume an intrinsic outflow speed similar to that of the underlying jet, we predict that molecular outflows should have an overall extent of several parsecs, in accordance with recent results. It seems likely therefore that outflows are a major source of interstellar turbulence, and have a profound impact on the process of star formation.

Radiation patterns of “scalar” lightpipes

Abstract At long wavelengths, diffraction effects cause condensing lightpipes to have a significant response in directions within the geometric optics shadow zone. Here, using an analogy with the corrugated “scalar” horns often used in antenna engineering, we point out that a lightpipe with anisotropic surface impedance on its interior surfaces can have substantially reduced sidelobe levels. This may be important for measurements requiring high dynamic range, particularly in the far-infrared.

Focal-plane and aperture-plane heterodyne array receivers for millimeter-wave radioastronomy: a comparison

In this paper we consider the maximization of the throughput of a single large antenna, for two possible array configurations: focal plane imaging arrays and aperture plane phased arrays. We discuss trade-offs between the two types of array in terms of field of view, sampling efficiency and time to map, a source. We also discuss limits on the number of feed elements in an imaging array imposed by the deterioration in aperture efficiency off-axis.

A dual-polarization InSb receiver for 461/492 GHz

A dual-polarization InSb hot-electron bolometer-mixer receiver has been built for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope, for operation at 461 and 492 GHz (the frequencies of theJ=4→3 rotational transition of CO and of the3P1→3P0 transition of neutral carbon). Receiver noise temperatures of 500K have been obtained at 461 GHz, in observing bandwidths of 3 MHz. The receiver was designed as a “common-user” or facility instrument. Here we describe those aspects of the design and construction which enabled this goal to be realized.

Optical design of a dual-polarization receiver for 220-280 GHz

A 220–280 GHz dual polarization receiver has been built for the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope. Schottky diode mixers cooled to ∼15K by a closed-cycle refrigerator are used to give DSB noise temperatures of 300K and 420K in the two channels. The optical design is based on gaussian-beam optics, and is frequency independent; it allows the significant higher order gaussian modes to propagate unhindered, thus offering the prospect of very high aperture efficiency. The receiver includes a number of novel optical components, including a completely symmetric dual polarization Martin-Puplett interferometer, used as the L.O. injection diplexer; a dielectric waveplate used as an in-line variable polarization splitter; and a dual-polarization in-line tunable Fabry-Perot SSB filter. Measurements of the performance of the optical system are presented.

Interactions between molecular outflows and optical jets

Young stars produce both molecular outflows and, at a later evolutionary stage, well-collimated optical jets. The simplest explanation is that the molecular outflows are driven byobscured optical jets, rather than directly, by a disk wind for example, but the optical jets appear to have too small a momentum flux. Recent statistical studies however show that the molecular flows must be quasi-stationary, which means that the dynamical lifetime is a gross underestimate of the true age. As a consequence much less thrust is required. We present recent observations of RNO 43, which has well-defined optical and molecular outflows lying close to the plane of the sky. Excellent agreement with the observations is obtained with a simple kinematic model for the molecular material, which supposes that it lies in a parabolic shell around the optical jet with the highest velocities at the working surface. Together with our modelling of the NGC2024 outflow, this is very strong evidence that molecular outflows are produced by prompt entrainment of molecular material in a neutral or weakly-ionized jet.

The General Single-Dish Data format: A retrospective

The General Single-Dish Data format (GSDD) was developed in the mid-1980s as a data model to support centimeter, millimeter and submillimeter instrumentation at NRAO, JCMT, the University of Arizona and IRAM. We provide an overview of the GSDD requirements and associated data model, discuss the implementation of the resultant file formats, describe its usage in the observatories and provide a retrospective on the format.

Spectral baseline ripple in hot-electron bolometer mixers due to local oscillator phase and amplitude instabilities

High resolution millimetre and submillimetre wave astronomical spectrometers using hot-electron bolometer mixers as detectors often show marked “standing wave patterns” in the spectral baseline. LO phase noise contributes through two mechanisms: the phase noise side-bands may be converted to amplitude noise in the source because of the power-frequency characteristic of the source, or they can be converted to in-band amplitude noise through the action of the quasi-optical discriminator formed by the mixer, beam-splitter and telescope structure. The baseline ripple components due to each of these mechanisms have different characteristic periods, and under some circumstances can dominate the spectrometer baseline. The ripple levels estimated using the theory agree well with those observed in practice. It is shown that with careful design systematic effects due to this cause can be reduced to a negligible level.