The Square Kilometre Array (SKA)

Abstract:

The Q/U Imaging ExperimenT (QUIET) is designed to measure polarization in the cosmic microwave background, targeting the imprint of inflationary gravitational waves at large angular scales(~1°). Between 2008 October and 2010 December, two independent receiver arrays were deployed sequentially on a 1.4 m side-fed Dragonian telescope. The polarimeters that form the focal planes use a compact design based on high electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) that provides simultaneous measurements of the Stokes parameters Q, U, and I in a single module. The 17-element Q-band polarimeter array, with a central frequency of 43.1 GHz, has the best sensitivity (69 μKs1/2) and the lowest instrumental systematic errors ever achieved in this band, contributing to the tensor-to-scalar ratio at r < 0.1. The 84-element W-band polarimeter array has a sensitivity of 87 μKs1/2 at a central frequency of 94.5 GHz. It has the lowest systematic errors to date, contributing at r < 0.01. The two arrays together cover multipoles in the range ℓ ~ 25-975. These are the largest HEMT-based arrays deployed to date. This article describes the design, calibration, performance, and sources of systematic error of the instrument.

Abstract:

Some radio pulsars show clear "drifting subpulses", in which subpulses are seen to drift in pulse longitude in a systematic pattern. Here we examine how the drifting subpulses of PSR B0809+74 evolve with time and observing frequency. We show that the subpulse period (P3) is constant on timescales of days, months and years, and between 14-5100 MHz. Despite this, the shapes of the driftbands change radically with frequency. Previous studies have concluded that, while the subpulses appear to move through the pulse window approximately linearly at low frequencies (<500 MHz), a discrete step of ~180 in subpulse phase is observed at higher frequencies (>820 MHz) near to the peak of the average pulse profile. We use LOFAR, GMRT, GBT, WSRT and Effelsberg 100-m data to explore the frequency-dependence of this phase step. We show that the size of the subpulse phase step increases gradually, and is observable even at low frequencies. We attribute the subpulse phase step to the presence of two separate driftbands, whose relative arrival times vary with frequency - one driftband arriving 30 pulses earlier at 20 MHz than it does at 1380 MHz, whilst the other arrives simultaneously at all frequencies. The drifting pattern which is observed here cannot be explained by either the rotating carousel model or the surface oscillation model, and could provide new insight into the physical processes happening within the pulsar magnetosphere. © ESO, 2013.