lofar-uk a proposal to stfc pprp pi professor rob fender (southampton) on behalf of the following...
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LOFAR-UKA proposal to STFC PPRP
PI Professor Rob Fender (Southampton)
On behalf of the following consortium:
Liverpool John Moores University, The Open University, The Universities of Cambridge, Cardiff, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hertfordshire, Manchester, Oxford, Portsmouth, Southampton, Aberystwyth, University College London, The Rutherford-Appleton laboratory
+ Universities of Kent and Sussex, QMU and ATC contingent on SUPA2 and SEPNET funding
A ‘next generation’ radio telescope under construction in Europe, operating in 30—240 MHz frequency range. Thousands of small dipoles (no dishes) connected by high-speed internet to a central processing facility.
Orders of magnitude improvement in sensitivity and survey speed compared to previous observation at these frequencies. Extremely diverse science case and user community.
Pathfinder for the low-frequency component of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a key component of the RCUK large facilities roadmap.
LOFAR science case
LOFAR Key Science Projects
• Epoch of Reionisation (EoR)
• Deep extragalactic surveys
• Radio transients and Pulsars
• Cosmic rays and particle astrophysics
• Solar physics
• Cosmic Magnetism
Guaranteed time will be allocated to these KSPs for the first ~5 years of LOFAR operations, with a steadily increasing fraction of open time.
The Epoch of ReionisationReionisation of the Universe, following the ‘dark ages’, occurred 6 < z < 12
This redshifts the 21cm HI line to the LOFAR frequency range, allowing mapping of EoR signal
Key issue is removal of radio foreground
Deep extragalactic surveysLOFAR will detect 108 extragalactic radio sources (primarily starburst galaxies) fantastic resource for cosmology
Requires international baselines to fulfil its potential
Radio Transients and PulsarsLOFAR will scan a large fraction of the entire sky ~daily, providing a Radio Sky Monitor for the first time.
Combined with targeted surveys, we will study
Accreting black holes / neutron stars
Pulsars
Extrasolar planets
‘LIGO events’ + … ?
Collaboration with LT already established
Cosmic rays / particle astrophysics
CR produce radio pulse
High-energy particles (e.g. neutrinos) can produce radio burst by interacting with moon
Cosmic magnetismLOFAR polarisation surveys will allow unprecedented mapping of large-scale magnetic structures within our galaxy and other galaxies
This KSP has the practical task of making LOFAR polarisation calibration work
Solar physicsLOFAR is a fantastic tool for monitoring the Sun as well as the solar wind / ejections and their propagation out through the inner solar system
Stand-alone science
LOFAR stations can be used as stand-alone observatories for monitoring variable sources e.g. pulsars, solar activity, radio transients
The LOFAR-UK white paper
On Feb 8 we published the LOFAR-UK white paper on astro-ph (see also LOFAR-UK website www.lofar-uk.org)
astro-ph/arXiv:0802.1186
LOFAR-UK White Paper: A Science case for UK involvement in LOFAR
The need for long baselines
LOFAR with pan-European baselines – of which LOFAR-UK will be a key part – will have ten times better angular resolution than the Dutch LOFAR alone.
This dramatically improves LOFAR’s ability to make deep extragalactic surveys due to the confusion limit
It also allows spatially resolved imaging of relativistic jets, the Sun, galactic structure, clusters of galaxies etc.
LOFAR-UK are not limited to long-baseline only science!
LOFAR technical case
Low-band antennae (LBA)
30—80 MHzDigital beamforming at station level
High-band antennae (HBA)
120—240 MHzArranged in 5x5 HBA tiles
Analogue beamforming at tile level
Inbetween: FM radio band
Single dipoleStation + beamforming
Correlation of different stations
Multiple beams
BlueGene
How LOFAR works in a nutshell
Latest LBA results
Three entire hemisphere images
Data reduction / analysis by prototype of final software
More than 400 sources detected (c.f. RXTE ASM)
HBA CS1 image
4 tiles + 12 individual HBAs
500m max baseline
Observing frequency 125—175 MHz
Cas A removed to ~1% level
0.5 Jy r.m.s.
Red squares sources from 4C radio catalogue
The complete LOFAR will havex 500 collecting areax 6 bandwidthx 2000 baseline
E(uropean)-LOFAR,
The SKA
and
LOFAR-UK
E-LOFAREuropean expansion is well-funded
LOFAR-NL
ASTRONThe Observatory
ARC + DMT(with UK presence)
Universities36—50
LOFAR-UK1—4
FLOW1
GLOW4—7
SLOW1
Also Italy, Poland, Austria, Ukr.
(Fender PI on FP7 E-LOFAR proposal)
LOFAR as a SKA pathfinderThe Square Kilometre Array is one of just two astronomical facilities in the RCUK large facilities roadmap
The SKA will have three different antenna systems sharing a common infrastructure:
Low freq dipoles
Intermediate freq tiles
High freq dishes
LOFAR is the only fully-funded pathfinder for the Low freq component of the SKA (cf MWA, LWA), and is the only SKA pathfinder of any sort under construction in Europe (cf ASKAP, MeerKAT)
Southampton
Oxford
Portsmouth
UCL/MSSL
Hertfordshire
Cambridge
LJMU
Durham
Edinburgh
Glasgow
SUPA2
LOFAR-UKFormed in 2004
£600k raised in institutional contributions, plus donations of land at 4 sites
Cardiff
Aberystwyth
Manchester
RAL
O.U.
Very broad support extending beyond the traditional radio astronomy institutes
SEPNET
Chilbolton: 600 km baseline (RAL/STFC land)
Lords Bridge: 450 km baseline (U. Camb land)
Jodrell: 650 km baseline (U. Man land)
Edinburgh: 850 km baseline (U. Edinburgh land)
LOFAR:UK Proposed station sites
Using LOFAR-UK funds already raised, we have agreed first station purchase with ASTRON
(to be one of the three stations in England – all of these have been tested by ASTRON technical team)
Data connections to NL via SuperJanet 5 +commerical
What is return for UK investment?A disproportionately large amount of science
• Epoch of Reionisation (EoR)
• Deep extragalactic surveys
• Radio transients / Pulsars
• Cosmic rays
• Solar physics
• Cosmic Magnetism
PLUS vital training in preparation for development of SKA
Core team involvement
Major involvement / board level
Overall leadership (2/3 board)
Core team involvement
Major involvement / board level
Core team involvement
This large level of involvement and leadership is based upon delivery of 4 LOFAR-UK stations
CostsThe project has a base cost of £4M in two major subsystems
Including Working Allowance and Risk £5M
Costs to be noted
• £600k already raised by consortium
• SEPNET: £2.15M astro bid, focussed on LOFAR
- £148k earmarked for hardware at Chilbolton
• SUPA2: £500k requested for LOFAR station at Edinburgh
NB1: we already have quote for all station costs except HBAs, so risk on hardware costs is reduced
NB2: commitment to spend on further UK stations probably needs to be with ASTRON by end 2008
£267k
£200k
£386k
£407k
£972k
£469k
£862k
£998k
£550k ‘in the bank’
SUPA2 contrib. subtracted from I2
ManagementProject manager to be hired (at 50%)
Existing Management to become the LOFAR-UK board of University members
STFC steering committee to be established
Meetings:
Management – monthly
Board – 6 monthly
SummaryLOFAR is a fully-funded ‘next generation’ radio telescope and SKA pathfinder under construction in The Netherlands
Expansion of the array across Europe is essential to maximise its potential, and is already part-funded in Germany, France, Sweden
For a base cost of ~£4M LOFAR-UK will make the UK a major partner in LOFAR, providing access to breakthrough science as well as training of people in preparation for the SKA.