The AARTFAAC All-Sky Monitor: System Design and Implementation

The Amsterdam-ASTRON Radio Transients Facility And Analysis Center (AARTFAAC) all sky monitor is a sensitive, real time transient detector based on the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR). It generates images of the low frequency radio sky with spatial resolution of 10s of arcmin, MHz bandwidths, and a time cadence of a few seconds, while simultaneously but independently observing with LOFAR. The image timeseries is then monitored for short and bright radio transients. On detection of a transient, a low latency trigger will be generated for LOFAR, which can interrupt its schedule to carry out follow-up observations of the trigger location at high sensitivity and resolutions. In this paper, we describe our heterogeneous, hierarchical design to manage the 240 Gbps raw data rate, and large scale computing to produce real-time images with minimum latency. We discuss the implementation of the instrumentation, its performance, and scalability.Comment: Submitted to Journal of Astronomical Instrumentation, Special issue on 'Digital Signal Processing (DSP) in Radio Astronomy

Journeys from quantum optics to quantum technology

Sir Peter Knight is a pioneer in quantum optics which has now grown to an important branch of modern physics to study the foundations and applications of quantum physics. He is leading an effort to develop new technologies from quantum mechanics. In this collection of essays, we recall the time we were working with him as a postdoc or a PhD student and look at how the time with him has influenced our research

Cricket in colonial India : the Bombay Pentagular, 1892-1946

La relation entre cricket et l'émergence de la société urbaine de l'Inde dans la première moitié du XXe siècle à travers l'analyse du tournoi pentagulaire de Bombay

The AARTFAAC All-Sky Monitor:System Design and Implementation

The Amsterdam–ASTRON Radio Transients Facility and Analysis Center (AARTFAAC) all-sky monitor is a sensitive, real-time transient detector based on the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR). It generates images of the low frequency radio sky with spatial resolution of tens of arcmin, MHz bandwidths, and a time cadence of a few seconds, while simultaneously but independently observing with LOFAR. The image timeseries is then monitored for short and bright radio transients. On detection of a transient, a low latency trigger will be generated for LOFAR, which can interrupt its schedule to carry out follow-up observations of the trigger location at high sensitivity and resolutions. In this paper, we describe our heterogeneous, hierarchical design to manage the 259Gbps raw data rate and large scale computing to produce real-time images with minimum latency. We discuss the implementation of the instrumentation, its performance and scalability