Quantum steps in Radio Astronomy:

2. Quantum steps in Radio Astronomy: LOFAR, SKA & ALMA

5. Renaissance of Low-Frequency Radioastronomy: LOFAR

7. LOFAR: • 13000 dipoles clustered in  100 stations  simple frontend hardware, but complex digital correlation ... •  400 km across • frequency coverage 10 MHz - 200 MHz • collecting area  1 km2 • b = 2” - 40” • correlation via optical fibers

8. Science: - re-ionization 5 < z < 20  ‘step’ at 70 ···240 MHz expected - high-z universe - bursting and transient universe, GRBs - 327 MHz deuterium line - solar-terrestrial relationships

9. SKA

11. SKA: • 1 km2 collecting area (different concepts) • frequency coverage: 150 MHz - 20 (43) GHz • max. Baseline  1000 km • b  0.1” @ 1.4 GHz • f.o.v.  1 0 @ 1.4 GHz

12. Science: - epoch of 1st HI signatures at z > 10? - 1st energy sources QSOs? - LSS: deep surveys Ly forest in HI line high-z CO - deep continuum fields: sub-Jy sky - DM with lensing - AGN - circum-nuclear megamasers - starbursts: brightest M82 sources detectable at z  0.4 - ISM / B-fields - GRBs

14. ALMA

15. ALMA: • location: Atacama desert at Chajnantor; 5000 m altitude • operation: 1st few antennas 2006, full array 2009 (?) • 64 dishes with Ø = 12 m  Atot = 7000 m2 (Plateau de Bure: 6  15-m dishes, 1000 m2) • surface accuracy (25 m) permits observations up to  1 THz or down to  280 m! • frequency coverage 70 - 900 GHz • b  10 mas (e.g.  = 1 mm, Dmax = 14 km)

16. - CMB anisotropy - SZ - SF galaxies out to z = 20 (negative K-correction helps); first galaxies after the ‘dark age’ - DM1: gravitational lenses; map arcs in molecular lines - DM2: rotation curves in CO and CII at high z - QSO mol. absorption lines (> 30 lines already detected against systems out to z = 0.9) - AGN: in ‘depth’ (low synchrotron and dust opacity) - normal galaxies: to be studied out to z = 1 - 2 molecular transition ladder ensures to see lines at all redshifts - Magellanic Clouds: studies of molecules down to 50 AU (!) scale - harvest planets out to kpc distances