LOFAR-UK A proposal to STFC PPRP PI Professor Rob Fender (Southampton)

1. LOFAR-UK A proposal to STFC PPRP PI Professor Rob Fender (Southampton) On behalf of the following consortium: Liverpool John Moores University, The Open University, The Universities of Cambridge, Cardiff, Durham, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Hertfordshire, Manchester, Oxford, Portsmouth, Southampton, Aberystwyth, University College London, The Rutherford-Appleton laboratory + Universities of Kent and Sussex, QMU and ATC contingent on SUPA2 and SEPNET funding

2. A ‘next generation’ radio telescope under construction in Europe, operating in 30—240 MHz frequency range. Thousands of small dipoles (no dishes) connected by high-speed internet to a central processing facility. Orders of magnitude improvement in sensitivity and survey speed compared to previous observation at these frequencies. Extremely diverse science case and user community. Pathfinder for the low-frequency component of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), a key component of the RCUK large facilities roadmap.

3. LOFAR science case

4. LOFAR Key Science Projects • Epoch of Reionisation (EoR) • Deep extragalactic surveys • Radio transients and Pulsars • Cosmic rays and particle astrophysics • Solar physics • Cosmic Magnetism • Guaranteed time will be allocated to these KSPs for the first ~5 years of LOFAR operations, with a steadily increasing fraction of open time.

5. The Epoch of Reionisation • Reionisation of the Universe, following the ‘dark ages’, occurred 6 < z < 12 • This redshifts the 21cm HI line to the LOFAR frequency range, allowing mapping of EoR signal Key issue is removal of radio foreground

6. Deep extragalactic surveys LOFAR will detect 108 extragalactic radio sources (primarily starburst galaxies)  fantastic resource for cosmology Requires international baselines to fulfil its potential

7. Radio Transients and Pulsars LOFAR will scan a large fraction of the entire sky ~daily, providing a Radio Sky Monitor for the first time. Combined with targeted surveys, we will study Accreting black holes / neutron stars Pulsars Extrasolar planets ‘LIGO events’ + … ? Collaboration with LT already established

8. Cosmic rays / particle astrophysics High-energy particles (e.g. neutrinos) can produce radio burst by interacting with moon CR produce radio pulse

9. Cosmic magnetism LOFAR polarisation surveys will allow unprecedented mapping of large-scale magnetic structures within our galaxy and other galaxies This KSP has the practical task of making LOFAR polarisation calibration work

10. Solar physics LOFAR is a fantastic tool for monitoring the Sun as well as the solar wind / ejections and their propagation out through the inner solar system

11. Stand-alone science LOFAR stations can be used as stand-alone observatories for monitoring variable sources e.g. pulsars, solar activity, radio transients The LOFAR-UK white paper On Feb 8 we published the LOFAR-UK white paper on astro-ph (see also LOFAR-UK website www.lofar-uk.org) LOFAR-UK White Paper: A Science case for UK involvement in LOFAR astro-ph/arXiv:0802.1186

12. The need for long baselines LOFAR with pan-European baselines – of which LOFAR-UK will be a key part – will have ten times better angular resolution than the Dutch LOFAR alone. This dramatically improves LOFAR’s ability to make deep extragalactic surveys due to the confusion limit It also allows spatially resolved imaging of relativistic jets, the Sun, galactic structure, clusters of galaxies etc. LOFAR-UK are not limited to long-baseline only science!

13. LOFAR technical case

14. Low-band antennae (LBA) 30—80 MHz Digital beamforming at station level Inbetween: FM radio band High-band antennae (HBA) 120—240 MHz Arranged in 5x5 HBA tiles Analogue beamforming at tile level

15. How LOFAR works in a nutshell Multiple beams Correlation of different stations BlueGene Single dipole Station + beamforming

16. Latest LBA results Three entire hemisphere images Data reduction / analysis by prototype of final software More than 400 sources detected (c.f. RXTE ASM)

17. HBA CS1 image 4 tiles + 12 individual HBAs 500m max baseline Observing frequency 125—175 MHz Cas A removed to ~1% level 0.5 Jy r.m.s. Red squares sources from 4C radio catalogue The complete LOFAR will have x 500 collecting area x 6 bandwidth x 2000 baseline

18. E(uropean)-LOFAR, The SKA and LOFAR-UK

19. E-LOFAR European expansion is well-funded SLOW 1 LOFAR-UK 1—4 LOFAR-NL ASTRON The Observatory ARC + DMT (with UK presence) Universities 36—50 GLOW 4—7 Also Italy, Poland, Austria, Ukr. (Fender PI on FP7 E-LOFAR proposal) FLOW 1

20. LOFAR as a SKA pathfinder The Square Kilometre Array is one of just two astronomical facilities in the RCUK large facilities roadmap The SKA will have three different antenna systems sharing a common infrastructure: Low freq dipoles Intermediate freq tiles High freq dishes LOFAR is the only fully-funded pathfinder for the Low freq component of the SKA (cf MWA, LWA), and is the only SKA pathfinder of any sort under construction in Europe (cf ASKAP, MeerKAT)

21. LOFAR-UK Formed in 2004 £600k raised in institutional contributions, plus donations of land at 4 sites Edinburgh SUPA2 Glasgow Durham LJMU Very broad support extending beyond the traditional radio astronomy institutes Manchester Aberystwyth O.U. Cambridge Cardiff RAL Hertfordshire Oxford SEPNET UCL/MSSL Portsmouth Southampton

22. LOFAR:UK Proposed station sites Using LOFAR-UK funds already raised, we have agreed first station purchase with ASTRON (to be one of the three stations in England – all of these have been tested by ASTRON technical team) Data connections to NL via SuperJanet 5 +commerical Edinburgh: 850 km baseline (U. Edinburgh land) Jodrell: 650 km baseline (U. Man land)‏ Lords Bridge: 450 km baseline (U. Camb land)‏ Chilbolton: 600 km baseline (RAL/STFC land)‏

23. What is return for UK investment? • A disproportionately large amount of science • Epoch of Reionisation (EoR) • Deep extragalactic surveys • Radio transients / Pulsars • Cosmic rays • Solar physics • Cosmic Magnetism • PLUS vital training in preparation for development of SKA Core team involvement Major involvement / board level Overall leadership (2/3 board) Core team involvement Major involvement / board level Core team involvement This large level of involvement and leadership is based upon delivery of 4 LOFAR-UK stations

24. Costs • The project has a base cost of £4M in two major subsystems • Including Working Allowance and Risk  £5M • Costs to be noted • £600k already raised by consortium • SEPNET: £2.15M astro bid, focussed on LOFAR • - £148k earmarked for hardware at Chilbolton • SUPA2: £500k requested for LOFAR station at Edinburgh • NB1: we already have quote for all station costs except HBAs, so risk on hardware costs is reduced • NB2: commitment to spend on further UK stations probably needs to be with ASTRON by end 2008

25. £550k ‘in the bank’ SUPA2 contrib. subtracted from I2 £267k £972k £200k £469k £386k £862k £407k £998k

26. Management Project manager to be hired (at 50%) Existing Management to become the LOFAR-UK board of University members STFC steering committee to be established Meetings: Management – monthly Board – 6 monthly

27. Summary LOFAR is a fully-funded ‘next generation’ radio telescope and SKA pathfinder under construction in The Netherlands Expansion of the array across Europe is essential to maximise its potential, and is already part-funded in Germany, France, Sweden For a base cost of ~£4M LOFAR-UK will make the UK a major partner in LOFAR, providing access to breakthrough science as well as training of people in preparation for the SKA.