S. J. Tingay

The Murchison Widefield Array: The Square Kilometre Array Precursor at Low Radio Frequencies

The Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) is one of three Square Kilometre Array Precursor telescopes and is located at the Murchison Radio-astronomy Observatory in the Murchison Shire of the mid-west of Western Australia, a location chosen for its extremely low levels of radio frequency interference. The MWA operates at low radio frequencies, 80–300 MHz, with a processed bandwidth of 30.72 MHz for both linear polarisations, and consists of 128 aperture arrays (known as tiles) distributed over a ~3-km diameter area. Novel hybrid hardware/software correlation and a real-time imaging and calibration systems comprise the MWA signal processing backend. In this paper, the as-built MWA is described both at a system and sub-system level, the expected performance of the array is presented, and the science goals of the instrument are summarised.

The Murchison Widefield Array: Design Overview

The Murchison Widefield Array is a dipole-based aperture array synthesis telescope designed to operate in the 80-300 MHz frequency range. It is capable of a wide range of science investigations but is initially focused on three key science projects: detection and characterization of three-dimensional brightness temperature fluctuations in the 21 cm line of neutral hydrogen during the epoch of reionization (EoR) at redshifts from six to ten; solar imaging and remote sensing of the inner heliosphere via propagation effects on signals from distant background sources; and high-sensitivity exploration of the variable radio sky. The array design features 8192 dual-polarization broadband active dipoles, arranged into 512 ldquotilesrdquo comprising 16 dipoles each. The tiles are quasi-randomly distributed over an aperture 1.5 km in diameter, with a small number of outliers extending to 3 km. All tile-tile baselines are correlated in custom field-programmable gate array based hardware, yielding a Nyquist-sampled instantaneous monochromatic uv coverage and unprecedented point spread function quality. The correlated data are calibrated in real time using novel position-dependent self-calibration algorithms. The array is located in the Murchison region of outback Western Australia. This region is characterized by extremely low population density and a superbly radio-quiet environment, allowing full exploitation of the instrumental capabilities.

DiFX : A software correlator for very long baseline interferometry using multiprocessor computing environments

We describe the development of an FX-style correlator for very long baseline interferometry (VLBI), implemented in software and intended to run in multiprocessor computing environments, such as large clusters of commodity machines (Beowulf clusters) or computers specifically designed for high-performance computing, such as multiprocessor shared-memory machines. We outline the scientific and practical benefits for VLBI correlation, these chiefly being due to the inherent flexibility of software and the fact that the highly parallel and scalable nature of the correlation task is well suited to a multiprocessor computing environment. We suggest scientific applications where such an approach to VLBI correlation is most suited and will give the best returns. We report detailed results from the Distributed FX (DiFX) software correlator running on the Swinburne supercomputer (a Beowulf cluster of ∼300 commodity processors), including measures of the performance of the system. For example, to correlate all Stokes products for a 10 antenna array with an aggregate bandwidth of 64 MHz per station, and using typical time and frequency resolution, currently requires an order of 100 desktop- class compute nodes. Due to the effect of Moores law on commodity computing performance, the total number and cost of compute nodes required to meet a given correlation task continues to decrease rapidly with time. We show detailed comparisons between DiFX and two existing hardware-based correlators: the Australian Long Baseline Array S2 correlator and the NRAO Very Long Baseline Array correlator. In both cases, excellent agreement was found between the correlators. Finally, we describe plans for the future operation of DiFX on the Swinburne supercomputer for both astrophysical and geodetic science.

DiFX-2: A More Flexible, Efficient, Robust, and Powerful Software Correlator

Software correlation, where a correlation algorithm written in a high-level language such as C++ is run on commodity computer hardware, has become increasingly attractive for small- to medium-sized and/or bandwidth-constrained radio interferometers. In particular, many long-baseline arrays (which typically have fewer than 20 elements and are restricted in observing bandwidth by costly recording hardware and media) have utilized software correlators for rapid, cost-effective, correlator upgrades to allow compatibility with new, wider-bandwidth, recording systems and to improve correlator flexibility. The DiFX correlator, made publicly available in 2007, has been a popular choice in such upgrades and is now used for production correlation by a number of observatories and research groups worldwide. Here, we describe the evolution in the capabilities of the DiFX correlator over the past three years, including a number of new capabilities, substantial performance improvements, and a large amount of supporting infrastructure to ease use of the code. New capabilities include the ability to correlate a large number of phase centers in a single correlation pass, the extraction of phase-calibration tones, correlation of disparate but overlapping sub-bands, the production of rapidly sampled filter-bank and kurtosis data at minimal cost, and many more. The latest version of the code is at least 15% faster than the original (and in certain situations, many times this value). Finally, we also present detailed test results validating the correctness of the new code.

Science with the Murchison Widefield Array

Significant new opportunities for astrophysics and cosmology have been identified at low radio frequencies. The Murchison Widefield Array is the first telescope in the southern hemisphere designed specifically to explore the low-frequency astronomical sky between 80 and 300 MHz with arcminute angular resolution and high survey efficiency. The telescope will enable new advances along four key science themes, including searching for redshifted 21-cm emission from the EoR in the early Universe; Galactic and extragalactic all-sky southern hemisphere surveys; time-domain astrophysics; and solar, heliospheric, and ionospheric science and space weather. The Murchison Widefield Array is located in Western Australia at the site of the planned Square Kilometre Array (SKA) low-band telescope and is the only low-frequency SKA precursor facility. In this paper, we review the performance properties of the Murchison Widefield Array and describe its primary scientific objectives.

Science with the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder

The future of cm and m-wave astronomy lies with the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a telescope under development by a consortium of 17 countries that will be 50 times more sensitive than any existing radio facility. Most of the key science for the SKA will be addressed through large-area imaging of the Universe at frequencies from a few hundred MHz to a few GHz. The Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) is a technology demonstrator aimed in the mid-frequency range, and achieves instantaneous wide-area imaging through the development and deployment of phased-array feed systems on parabolic reflectors. The large field-of-view makes ASKAP an unprecedented synoptic telescope that will make substantial advances in SKA key science. ASKAP will be located at the Murchison Radio Observatory in inland Western Australia, one of the most radio-quiet locations on the Earth and one of two sites selected by the international community as a potential location for the SKA. In this paper, we outline the ASKAP project and summarise its headline science goals as defined by the community at large.

The host galaxy of a fast radio burst

In recent years, millisecond-duration radio signals originating in distant galaxies appear to have been discovered in the so-called fast radio bursts. These signals are dispersed according to a precise physical law and this dispersion is a key observable quantity, which, in tandem with a redshift measurement, can be used for fundamental physical investigations. Every fast radio burst has a dispersion measurement, but none before now have had a redshift measurement, because of the difficulty in pinpointing their celestial coordinates. Here we report the discovery of a fast radio burst and the identification of a fading radio transient lasting ~6 days after the event, which we use to identify the host galaxy; we measure the galaxy’s redshift to be z = 0.492 ± 0.008. The dispersion measure and redshift, in combination, provide a direct measurement of the cosmic density of ionized baryons in the intergalactic medium of ΩIGM = 4.9 ± 1.3 per cent, in agreement with the expectation from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, and including all of the so-called ‘missing baryons’. The ~6-day radio transient is largely consistent with the radio afterglow of a short γ-ray burst, and its existence and timescale do not support progenitor models such as giant pulses from pulsars, and supernovae. This contrasts with the interpretation of another recently discovered fast radio burst, suggesting that there are at least two classes of bursts.E. F. Keane, S. Johnston, S. Bhandari, E. Barr, N. D. R. Bhat, M. Burgay, M. Caleb, C. Flynn, A. Jameson, M. Kramer, E. Petroff, A. Possenti, W. van Straten, M. Bailes, S. Burke-Spolaor, R. P. Eatough, B. Stappers, T. Totani, M. Honma, H. Furusawa, T. Hattori, T. Morokuma, Y. Niino, H. Sugai, T. Terai, N. Tominaga, S. Yamasaki, N. Yasuda, R. Allen, J. Cooke, J. Jencson, M. M. Kasliwal, D. L. Kaplan, S. J. Tingay, A. Williams, R. Wayth, P. Chandra, D. Perrodin, M. Berezina, M. Mickaliger & C. Bassa

GLEAM: The GaLactic and Extragalactic All-Sky MWA Survey

© Astronomical Society of Australia 2015; published by Cambridge University Press. This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon this work, for commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

TANAMI: tracking active galactic nuclei with austral milliarcsecond interferometry - I. First-epoch 8.4 GHz images

We introduce the TANAMI program (Tracking Active Galactic Nuclei with Austral Milliarcsecond Interferometry) which is monitoring an initial sample of 43 extragalactic jets located south of -30 degrees declination at 8.4 GHz and 22 GHz since 2007. All aspects of the program are discussed. First epoch results at 8.4 GHz are presented along with physical parameters derived therefrom. We present first epoch images for 43 sources, some observed for the first time at milliarcsecond resolution. Parameters of these images as well as physical parameters derived from them are also presented and discussed. These and subsequent images from the TANAMI survey are available at this http URL We obtain reliable, high dynamic range images of the southern hemisphere AGN. All the quasars and BL Lac objects in the sample have a single-sided radio morphology. Galaxies are either double-sided, single-sided or irregular. About 28% of the TANAMI sample has been detected by LAT during its first three months of operations. Initial analysis suggests that when galaxies are excluded, sources detected by LAT have larger opening angles than those not detected by LAT. Brightness temperatures of LAT detections and non-detections seem to have similar distributions. The redshift distributions of the TANAMI sample and sub-samples are similar to those seen for the bright gamma-ray AGN seen by LAT and EGRET but none of the sources with a redshift above 1.8 have been detected by LAT.

A study of fundamental limitations to statistical detection of redshifted H i from the epoch of reionization

In this paper, we explore for the first time the relative magnitudes of three fundamental sources of uncertainty, namely, foreground contamination, thermal noise, and sample variance, in detecting the H I power spectrum from the epoch of reionization (EoR). We derive limits on the sensitivity of a Fourier synthesis telescope to detect EoR based on its array configuration and a statistical representation of images made by the instrument. We use the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) configuration for our studies. Using a unified framework for estimating signal and noise components in the H I power spectrum, we derive an expression for and estimate the contamination from extragalactic point-like sources in three-dimensional k -space. Sensitivity for EoR H I power spectrum detection is estimated for different observing modes with MWA. With 1000 hr of observing on a single field using the 128 tile MWA, EoR detection is feasible (S/N >1 for k ≲ 0.8 Mpc -1 ). Bandpass shaping and refinements to the EoR window are found to be effective in containing foreground contamination, which makes the instrument tolerant to imaging errors. We find that for a given observing time, observing many independent fields of view does not offer an advantage over a single field observation when thermal noise dominates over other uncertainties in the derived power spectrum.