Observing pulsars and fast transients with LOFAR
ArXiv 1104.1577 (2011)
Authors:
BW Stappers, JWT Hessels, A Alexov, K Anderson, T Coenen, T Hassall, A Karastergiou, VI Kondratiev, M Kramer, J van Leeuwen, JD Mol, A Noutsos, JW Romein, P Weltevrede, R Fender, RAMJ Wijers, L Bähren, ME Bell, J Broderick, EJ Daw, VS Dhillon, J Eislöffel, H Falcke, J Griessmeier, C Law, S Markoff, JCA Miller-Jones, B Scheers, H Spreeuw, J Swinbank, S ter Veen, MW Wise, O Wucknitz, P Zarka, J Anderson, A Asgekar, IM Avruch, R Beck, P Bennema, MJ Bentum, P Best, J Bregman, M Brentjens, RH van de Brink, PC Broekema, WN Brouw, M Brüggen, AG de Bruyn, HR Butcher, B Ciardi, J Conway, R-J Dettmar, A van Duin, J van Enst, M Garrett, M Gerbers, T Grit, A Gunst, MP van Haarlem, JP Hamaker, G Heald, M Hoeft, H Holties, A Horneffer, LVE Koopmans, G Kuper, M Loose, P Maat, D McKay-Bukowski, JP McKean, G Miley, R Morganti, R Nijboer, JE Noordam, M Norden, H Olofsson, M Pandey-Pommier, A Polatidis, W Reich, H Röttgering, A Schoenmakers, J Sluman, O Smirnov, M Steinmetz, CGM Sterks, M Tagger, Y Tang, R Vermeulen, N Vermaas, C Vogt, M de Vos, SJ Wijnholds, S Yatawatta, A Zensus
Abstract:
Low frequency radio waves, while challenging to observe, are a rich source of
information about pulsars. The LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) is a new radio
interferometer operating in the lowest 4 octaves of the ionospheric "radio
window": 10-240MHz, that will greatly facilitate observing pulsars at low radio
frequencies. Through the huge collecting area, long baselines, and flexible
digital hardware, it is expected that LOFAR will revolutionize radio astronomy
at the lowest frequencies visible from Earth. LOFAR is a next-generation radio
telescope and a pathfinder to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), in that it
incorporates advanced multi-beaming techniques between thousands of individual
elements. We discuss the motivation for low-frequency pulsar observations in
general and the potential of LOFAR in addressing these science goals. We
present LOFAR as it is designed to perform high-time-resolution observations of
pulsars and other fast transients, and outline the various relevant observing
modes and data reduction pipelines that are already or will soon be implemented
to facilitate these observations. A number of results obtained from
commissioning observations are presented to demonstrate the exciting potential
of the telescope. This paper outlines the case for low frequency pulsar
observations and is also intended to serve as a reference for upcoming
pulsar/fast transient science papers with LOFAR.
