Hintze Centre for Astrophysical Surveys

Abstract:

The FRATs project aims to detect single dispersed pulses from Fast Radio Transients with LOFAR in real-time. These pulses can originate from pulsars, RRATS and other classes of known or unknown objects. To detect these pulses a detection algorithm is being run on an incoherent beam from the different LOFAR stations. This incoherent beam has a wide field of view and can be formed parallel to other observations, such that both can run at the same time. A precise localisation is done by storing the data from each dipole. This gives an all-sky coverage with a spatial resolution of order arc seconds. The source is identified by making high time-resolution images. This is explained in more detail with preliminary results illustrating the methods. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.

Abstract:

The LOw Frequency ARray is the first of the next generation of radio telescopes to be completed. It uses large numbers of small receptors and vast computing and data transport capabilities to achieve a high degree of sensitivity over large fields of view. It uses two different types of receptor to enable it to observe over the frequency range 10-260 MHz. Here we report on some of the capabilities of this telescope for pulsar and fast transient research. We also present some results of the commissioning work that we have been carrying out which highlight the exciting potential of this telescope. These include simultaneous imaging and pulsar observations, simultaneous observations spanning 30-8000 MHz, a large number of known pulsars detected in the high band and the detection of PSR B0809+74 down to a frequency of 16 MHz. © 2011 American Institute of Physics.