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Register a new userInitial deep LOFAR observations of Epoch of Reionization windows: I. The North Celestial Pole
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The aim of the LOFAR Epoch of Reionization (EoR) project is to detect the spectral fluctuations of the redshifted HI 21cm signal. This signal is weaker by several orders of magnitude than the astrophysical foreground signals and hence, in order to achieve this, very long integrations, accurate calibration for stations and ionosphere and reliable foreground removal are essential. One of the prospective observing windows for the LOFAR EoR project will be centered at the North Celestial Pole (NCP). We present results from observations of the NCP window using the LOFAR highband antenna (HBA) array in the frequency range 115 MHz to 163 MHz. The data were obtained in April 2011 during the commissioning phase of LOFAR. We used baselines up to about 30 km. With about 3 nights, of 6 hours each, effective integration we have achieved a noise level of about 100 microJy/PSF in the NCP window. Close to the NCP, the noise level increases to about 180 microJy/PSF, mainly due to additional contamination from unsubtracted nearby sources. We estimate that in our best night, we have reached a noise level only a factor of 1.4 above the thermal limit set by the noise from our Galaxy and the receivers. Our continuum images are several times deeper than have been achieved previously using the WSRT and GMRT arrays. We derive an analytical explanation for the excess noise that we believe to be mainly due to sources at large angular separation from the NCP.
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Detection of the 21-cm signal coming from the epoch of reionization (EoR) is challenging especially because, even after removing the foregrounds, the residual Stokes $I$ maps contain leakage from polarized emission that can mimic the signal. Here, we discuss the instrumental polarization of LOFAR and present realistic simulations of the leakages between Stokes parameters. From the LOFAR observations of polarized emission in the 3C196 field, we have quantified the level of polarization leakage caused by the nominal model beam of LOFAR, and compared it with the EoR signal using power spectrum analysis. We found that at 134--166 MHz, within the central 4$^circ$ of the field the $(Q,U)rightarrow I$ leakage power is lower than the EoR signal at $k<0.3$ Mpc$^{-1}$. The leakage was found to be localized around a Faraday depth of 0, and the rms of the leakage as a fraction of the rms of the polarized emission was shown to vary between 0.2-0.3%, both of which could be utilized in the removal of leakage. Moreover, we could define an `EoR window in terms of the polarization leakage in the cylindrical power spectrum above the PSF-induced wedge and below $k_parallelsim 0.5$ Mpc$^{-1}$, and the window extended up to $k_parallelsim 1$ Mpc$^{-1}$ at all $k_perp$ when 70% of the leakage had been removed. These LOFAR results show that even a modest polarimetric calibration over a field of view of $lesssim 4^circ$ in the future arrays like SKA will ensure that the polarization leakage remains well below the expected EoR signal at the scales of 0.02-1 Mpc$^{-1}$.
This study aims to characterise the polarized foreground emission in the ELAIS-N1 field and to address its possible implications for the extraction of the cosmological 21-cm signal from the Low-Frequency Array - Epoch of Reionization (LOFAR-EoR) data. We use the high band antennas of LOFAR to image this region and RM-synthesis to unravel structures of polarized emission at high Galactic latitudes. The brightness temperature of the detected Galactic emission is on average 4 K in polarized intensity and covers the range from -10 to +13rad m^-2 in Faraday depth. The total polarized intensity and polarization angle show a wide range of morphological features. We have also used the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope (WSRT) at 350 MHz to image the same region. The LOFAR and WSRT images show a similar complex morphology, at comparable brightness levels, but their spatial correlation is very low. The fractional polarization at 150 MHz, expressed as a percentage of the total intensity, amounts to 1.5%. There is no indication of diffuse emission in total intensity in the interferometric data, in line with results at higher frequencies. The wide frequency range, good angular resolution and good sensitivity make LOFAR an exquisite instrument for studying Galactic polarized emission at a resolution of 1-2 rad m^-2 in Faraday depth. The different polarised patterns observed at 150 MHz and 350 MHz are consistent with different source distributions along the line of sight wring in a variety of Faraday thin regions of emission. The presence of polarised foregrounds is a serious complication for Epoch of Reionization experiments. To avoid the leakage of polarized emission into total intensity, which can depend on frequency, we need to calibrate the instrumental polarization across the field of view to a small fraction of 1%.
LOFAR is a new and innovative effort to build a radio-telescope operating at the multi-meter wavelength spectral window. One of the most exciting applications of LOFAR will be the search for redshifted 21-cm line emission from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). It is currently believed that the Dark Ages, the period after recombination when the Universe turned neutral, lasted until around the Universe was 400,000 years old. During the EoR, objects started to form in the early universe and they were energetic enough to ionize neutral hydrogen. The precision and accuracy required to achieve this scientific goal, can be essentially translated into accumulating large amounts of data. The data model describing the response of the LOFAR telescope to the intensity distribution of the sky is characterized by the non-linearity of the parameters and the large level of noise compared to the desired cosmological signal. In this poster, we present the implementation of a statistically optimal map-making process and its properties. The basic assumptions of this method are that the noise is Gaussian and independent between the stations and frequency channels and that the dynamic range of the data can been enhanced significantly during the off-line LOFAR processing. These assumptions match our expectations for the LOFAR Epoch of Reionization Experiment.
One of the key science projects of the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) is the detection of the cosmological signal coming from the Epoch of Reionization (EoR). Here we present the LOFAR EoR Diagnostic Database (LEDDB) that is used in the storage, management, processing and analysis of the LOFAR EoR observations. It stores referencing information of the observations and diagnostic parameters extracted from their calibration. This stored data is used to ease the pipeline processing, monitor the performance of the telescope and visualize the diagnostic parameters which facilitates the analysis of the several contamination effects on the signals. It is implemented with PostgreSQL and accessed through the psycopg2 python module. We have developed a very flexible query engine, which is used by a web user interface to access the database, and a very extensive set of tools for the visualization of the diagnostic parameters through all their multiple dimensions.
We present the results of a four-month campaign searching for low-frequency radio transients near the North Celestial Pole with the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR), as part of the Multifrequency Snapshot Sky Survey (MSSS). The data were recorded between 2011 December and 2012 April and comprised 2149 11-minute snapshots, each covering 175 deg^2. We have found one convincing candidate astrophysical transient, with a duration of a few minutes and a flux density at 60 MHz of 15-25 Jy. The transient does not repeat and has no obvious optical or high-energy counterpart, as a result of which its nature is unclear. The detection of this event implies a transient rate at 60 MHz of 3.9 (+14.7, -3.7) x 10^-4 day^-1 deg^-2, and a transient surface density of 1.5 x 10^-5 deg^-2, at a 7.9-Jy limiting flux density and ~10-minute time-scale. The campaign data were also searched for transients at a range of other time-scales, from 0.5 to 297 min, which allowed us to place a range of limits on transient rates at 60 MHz as a function of observation duration.
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