What place for Millimetre Astronomy?

Michael Burton

UNSW

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Millimetre Spectral Windows

12 mm – ATCA7 mm – ATCA

3 mm – ATCA2 mm – Oz!

sub-mm – ALMA200+300µm – Dome C

far-IR – Dome A

Massive Protostar

z~6 Starburst / AGN

Australia’s role in the age of ALMA?

•Mopra + ATCA

•ALMA (staged opening to 2012)

•Complementarity

•Community vitality to SKA

What will ALMA be missing?

• Only cover 3-4 of the 10 wavebands– 3mm + 1mm + 0.8mm + 0.4mm– No 7mm, 12mm, 2mm– Limited use at 3mm?

• Small Field of View– ~arcminute

Mopra3mm + Wide Bandpass

• Finder Telescope– c.f. Schmidt vs. AAT

• Teaching Facility– Model for CSIRO / University

Collaboration– Wider access to funding sources

• 2mm - reshape dish?• 3mm - multibeam• 7mm - receiver, then multibeam

The ‘DQS’

ATCA MM-interferometer

• Fed by Mopra, Feeds ALMA– Provide a foundation for ALMA

science

• 12mm • 3mm multibeam

– c.f. ALMA’s small FOV

• 7mm– untouched by ALMA

• 2mm?• Real time phase monitoring

How to fund and support this?

• CSIRO – University Collaboration– $1m into mm-astronomy since 1998

• ARC Linkage Infrastructure (LIEF)• University capital grants

• International partners– Collaborate to, e.g., obtain multi-beam?– New sources; e.g. Singapore?

• Teaching + Research– Don’t forget the value of combining the two!

What to do about ALMA?• Australia must find a way to play some role in ALMA to ensure the

continued vitality of its astronomical community in the pre-SKA era.• ESO??

– Solves both the ELT + ALMA issues!

• Strategic International Alliances– Chile

• Our southern hemisphere cousin• Builds on established and productive links

– ARC Linkage for exchanges and access?

• Position ourselves to take advantage of any opportunities that may arise in Antarctica– e.g. HEAT at Dome A

MopraA model for University–CSIRO collaboration

• Teaching and Training– 5 mm workshops– Nurtured a mm-community

• Brings new resources– Attracted ~$1 million in funding to

astronomy– 22m dish, wide-band correlator,

OTF mapping, Friend of the Telescope etc.

• Fostered Intl collaboration– SEST, ESO– Chile

Working with UniversitiesIt took 5 years to build to OTF mapping

• Needs nurturing:– Slow at the start, but sure in the end.

• Teaching and Research– Develops a community– Opens new funding opportunities– Fosters new science opportunities

Mopra Extended Beam Efficiency

0.3

0.35

0.4

0.45

0.5

0.55

0.6

0.65

0.7

2000 2000.5 2001 2001.5 2002 2002.5 2003 2003.5 2004

Year

Efficiency

86 GHz

115 GHz