The Square Kilometre Array (SKA)

Abstract:

Faraday rotation measurements using the current and next generation of low-frequency radio telescopes will provide a powerful probe of astronomical magnetic fields. However, achieving the full potential of these measurements requires accurate removal of the time-variable ionospheric Faraday rotation contribution. We present ionFR, a code that calculates the amount of ionospheric Faraday rotation for a specific epoch, geographic location, and line-of-sight. ionFR uses a number of publicly available, GPS-derived total electron content maps and the most recent release of the International Geomagnetic Reference Field. We describe applications of this code for the calibration of radio polarimetric observations, and demonstrate the high accuracy of its modeled ionospheric Faraday rotations using LOFAR pulsar observations. These show that we can accurately determine some of the highest-precision pulsar rotation measures ever achieved. Precision rotation measures can be used to monitor rotation measure variations-either intrinsic or due to the changing line-of-sight through the interstellar medium. This calibration is particularly important for nearby sources, where the ionosphere can contribute a significant fraction of the observed rotation measure. We also discuss planned improvements to ionFR, as well as the importance of ionospheric Faraday rotation calibration for the emerging generation of low-frequency radio telescopes, such as the SKA and its pathfinders. © 2013 ESO.

Abstract:

Recently, there have been reports of six bright, dispersed bursts of coherent radio emission found in pulsar surveys with the Parkes Multibeam Receiver. Not much is known about the progenitors of these bursts, but they are highly energetic, and probably of extragalactic origin. Their properties suggest extreme environments and interesting physics, but in order to understand and study these events, more examples need to be found. Fortunately, the recent boom in radio astronomy means many 'next-generation' radio telescopes are set to begin observing in the near future. In this paper we discuss the prospects of detecting short extragalactic bursts, in both beamformed and imaging data, using these instruments. We find that often the volume of space probed by radio surveys of fast transients is limited by the dispersion measure of the source, rather than its physical distance (although the two quantities are related). This effect is larger for low-frequency telescopes, where propagation effects are more prominent, but their larger fields-of-view are often enough to compensate for this. Our simulations suggest that the low-frequency component of Square Kilometre Array Phase 1 could find an extragalactic burst every hour.We also show that if the sensitivity of the telescope is above a certain threshold, imaging surveysmay prove more fruitful than beamformed surveys in finding these sorts of transients. © 2013 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Abstract:

It has been speculated that low-luminosity radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) have the potential to serve as an important source of AGN feedback, and may be responsible for suppressing star formation activity in massive elliptical galaxies at late times. As such the cosmic evolution of these sources is vitally important to understand the significance of such AGN feedback processes and their influence on the global star formation history of the Universe. In this paper, we present a new investigation of the evolution of faint radio sources out to z ~ 2.5. We combine a 1 square degree Very Large Array radio survey, complete to a depth of 100 μJy, with accurate 10 band photometric redshifts from the following surveys: Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy Deep Extragalactic Observations and Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey. The results indicate that the radio population experiences mild positive evolution out to z ~ 1.2 increasing their space density by a factor of ~3, consistent with results of several previous studies. Beyond z = 1.2, there is evidence of a slowing down of this evolution. Star-forming galaxies drive the more rapid evolution at low redshifts, z < 1.2, while more slowly evolving AGN populations dominate at higher redshifts resulting in a decline in the evolution of the radio luminosity function at z > 1.2. The evolution is best fitted by pure luminosity evolution with star-forming galaxies evolving as (1 + z)2.47 ± 0.12 and AGN as (1 + z)1.18 ± 0.21M. © 2013 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.

Abstract:

We present an analysis of CO molecular gas tracers in a sample of 500 μm-selected Herschel Astrophysical Terahertz Large Area Survey (H-ATLAS) galaxies at z < 0.05 (cz < 14990 kms-1). Using 22-500 μm photometry from Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer, Infrared Astronomical Satellite and Herschel, with HI data from the literature, we investigate correlations between warm and cold dust, and tracers of the gas in different phases. The correlation between global CO(3-2) line fluxes and far-infrared (FIR)-submillimetre (submm) fluxes weakens with increasing infrared wavelength (λ ≳ 60 μm), as a result of colder dust being less strongly associated with dense gas. Conversely, CO(2-1) and HI line fluxes both appear to be better correlated with longer wavelengths, suggesting that cold dust is more strongly associated with diffuse atomic and molecular gas phases, consistent with it being at least partially heated by radiation from old stellar populations. The increased scatter at long wavelengths implies that submm fluxes are a poorer tracer of star formation rate (SFR). Fluxes at 22 and 60 μm are also better correlated with diffuse gas tracers than dense CO(3-2), probably due to very small grain emission in the diffuse interstellar medium, which is not correlated with SFR. The FIR/CO luminosity ratio and the dust mass/CO luminosity ratio both decrease with increasing luminosity, as a result of either correlations between mass and metallicity (changing CO/H2) or between CO luminosity and excitation [changing CO(3-2)/CO(1-0)]. © 2013 The Authors Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.