339 research outputs found
The Non-homogeneous Poisson Process for Fast Radio Burst Rates
This paper presents the non-homogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) for modeling
the rate of fast radio bursts (FRBs) and other infrequently observed
astronomical events. The NHPP, well-known in statistics, can model changes in
the rate as a function of both astronomical features and the details of an
observing campaign. This is particularly helpful for rare events like FRBs
because the NHPP can combine information across surveys, making the most of all
available information. The goal of the paper is two-fold. First, it is intended
to be a tutorial on the use of the NHPP. Second, we build an NHPP model that
incorporates beam patterns and a power law flux distribution for the rate of
FRBs. Using information from 12 surveys including 15 detections, we find an
all-sky FRB rate of 586.88 events per sky per day above a flux of 1 Jy (95\%
CI: 271.86, 923.72) and a flux power-law index of 0.91 (95\% CI: 0.57, 1.25).
Our rate is lower than other published rates, but consistent with the rate
given in Champion et al. 2016.Comment: 19 pages, 2 figure
Kinematic and tectonic significance of microstructures and crystallographic fabrics within quartz mylonites from the Assynt and Eriboll regions of the Moine thrust zone, NW Scotland
Using a combination of optical microscopy and X-ray texture goniometry, an integrated microstructural and crystallographic fabric study has been made of quartz mylonites from thrust sheets located beneath, but immediately adjacent to, the Moine thrust in the Assynt and Eriboll regions of NW Scotland. A correlation is established between shape fabric symmetry and pattern of crystallographic preferred orientation, a particularly clear relationship being observed between shape fabric variation and quartz a-axis fabrics. Coaxial strain paths dominate the internal parts of the thrust sheets and are indicated by quartz c- and a-axis fabrics which are symmetrical with respect to foliation and lineation. Non-coaxial strain paths are indicated within the more intensely deformed quartzites located near the boundaries of the sheets by asymmetrical c- and a-axis fabrics. These kinematic interpretations are supported by microstructural studies. At the Stack of Glencoul in the northern part of the Assynt region, the transition zone between these kinematic (strain path) domains is located at approximately 20 cm beneath the Moine thrust and is marked by a progression from symmetrical cross-girdle c-axis fabrics (30cm beneath the thrust), through asymmetrical cross-girdle c-axis fabrics to asymmetrical single girdle c-axis fabrics (0·5 cm beneath the thrust). Tectonic models (incorporating processes such as extensional flow, gravity spreading and tectonic loading) which may account for the presence of strain path domains within the thrust sheets are considered, and their compatibility with local thrust sheet geometries assesse
Wild at Heart:-The Particle Astrophysics of the Galactic Centre
We treat of the high-energy astrophysics of the inner ~200 pc of the Galaxy.
Our modelling of this region shows that the supernovae exploding here every few
thousand years inject enough power to i) sustain the steady-state, in situ
population of cosmic rays (CRs) required to generate the region's non-thermal
radio and TeV {\gamma}-ray emis-sion; ii) drive a powerful wind that advects
non-thermal particles out of the inner GC; iii) supply the low-energy CRs whose
Coulombic collisions sustain the temperature and ionization rate of the
anomalously warm, envelope H2 detected throughout the Cen-tral Molecular Zone;
iv) accelerate the primary electrons which provide the extended, non-thermal
radio emission seen over ~150 pc scales above and below the plane (the Galactic
centre lobe); and v) accelerate the primary protons and heavier ions which,
advected to very large scales (up to ~10 kpc), generate the recently-identified
WMAP haze and corresponding Fermi haze/bubbles. Our modelling bounds the
average magnetic field amplitude in the inner few degrees of the Galaxy to the
range 60 < B/microG < 400 (at 2 sigma confidence) and shows that even TeV CRs
likely do not have time to penetrate into the cores of the region's dense
molecular clouds before the wind removes them from the region. This latter
finding apparently disfavours scenarios in which CRs - in this star-burst-like
environment - act to substantially modify the conditions of star-formation. We
speculate that the wind we identify plays a crucial role in advecting
low-energy positrons from the Galactic nucleus into the bulge, thereby
explaining the extended morphology of the 511 keV line emission. (abridged)Comment: One figure corrected. Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 29 pages, 14
figure
All Transients, All the Time: Real-Time Radio Transient Detection with Interferometric Closure Quantities
We demonstrate a new technique for detecting radio transients based on
interferometric closure quantities. The technique uses the bispectrum, the
product of visibilities around a closed-loop of baselines of an interferometer.
The bispectrum is calibration independent, resistant to interference, and
computationally efficient, so it can be built into correlators for real-time
transient detection. Our technique could find celestial transients anywhere in
the field of view and localize them to arcsecond precision. At the Karl G.
Jansky Very Large Array (VLA), such a system would have a high survey speed and
a 5-sigma sensitivity of 38 mJy on 10 ms timescales with 1 GHz of bandwidth.
The ability to localize dispersed millisecond pulses to arcsecond precision in
large volumes of interferometer data has several unique science applications.
Localizing individual pulses from Galactic pulsars will help find X-ray
counterparts that define their physical properties, while finding host galaxies
of extragalactic transients will measure the electron density of the
intergalactic medium with a single dispersed pulse. Exoplanets and active stars
have distinct millisecond variability that can be used to identify them and
probe their magnetospheres. We use millisecond time scale visibilities from the
Allen Telescope Array (ATA) and VLA to show that the bispectrum can detect
dispersed pulses and reject local interference. The computational and data
efficiency of the bispectrum will help find transients on a range of time
scales with next-generation radio interferometers.Comment: Accepted to ApJ. 8 pages, 5 figures, 2 tables. Revised to include
discussion of non-Gaussian statistics of techniqu
The RRAT Trap: Interferometric Localization of Radio Pulses from J0628+0909
We present the first blind interferometric detection and imaging of a
millisecond radio transient with an observation of transient pulsar J0628+0909.
We developed a special observing mode of the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array
(VLA) to produce correlated data products (i.e., visibilities and images) on a
time scale of 10 ms. Correlated data effectively produce thousands of beams on
the sky that can localize sources anywhere over a wide field of view. We used
this new observing mode to find and image pulses from the rotating radio
transient (RRAT) J0628+0909, improving its localization by two orders of
magnitude. Since the location of the RRAT was only approximately known when
first observed, we searched for transients using a wide-field detection
algorithm based on the bispectrum, an interferometric closure quantity. Over 16
minutes of observing, this algorithm detected one transient offset roughly 1'
from its nominal location; this allowed us to image the RRAT to localize it
with an accuracy of 1.6". With a priori knowledge of the RRAT location, a
traditional beamforming search of the same data found two, lower significance
pulses. The refined RRAT position excludes all potential multiwavelength
counterparts, limiting its optical luminosity to L_i'<1.1x10^31 erg/s and
excluding its association with a young, luminous neutron star.Comment: Submitted to ApJ, 7 pages, 5 figure
Primary Beam Shape Calibration from Mosaicked, Interferometric Observations
Image quality in mosaicked observations from interferometric radio telescopes
is strongly dependent on the accuracy with which the antenna primary beam is
calibrated. The next generation of radio telescope arrays such as the Allen
Telescope Array (ATA) and the Square Kilometer Array (SKA) have key science
goals that involve making large mosaicked observations filled with bright point
sources. We present a new method for calibrating the shape of the telescope's
mean primary beam that uses the multiple redundant observations of these bright
sources in the mosaic. The method has an analytical solution for simple
Gaussian beam shapes but can also be applied to more complex beam shapes
through minimization. One major benefit of this simple, conceptually
clean method is that it makes use of the science data for calibration purposes,
thus saving telescope time and improving accuracy through simultaneous
calibration and observation. We apply the method both to 1.43 GHz data taken
during the ATA Twenty Centimeter Survey (ATATS) and to 3.14 GHz data taken
during the ATA's Pi Gigahertz Sky Survey (PiGSS). We find that the beam's
calculated full width at half maximum (FWHM) values are consistent with the
theoretical values, the values measured by several independent methods, and the
values from the simulation we use to demonstrate the effectiveness of our
method on data from future telescopes such as the expanded ATA and the SKA.
These results are preliminary, and can be expanded upon by fitting more complex
beam shapes. We also investigate, by way of a simulation, the dependence of the
accuracy of the telescope's FWHM on antenna number. We find that the
uncertainty returned by our fitting method is inversely proportional to the
number of antennas in the array.Comment: Accepted by PASP. 8 pages, 8 figure
A Millisecond Interferometric Search for Fast Radio Bursts with the Very Large Array
We report on the first millisecond timescale radio interferometric search for
the new class of transient known as fast radio bursts (FRBs). We used the Very
Large Array (VLA) for a 166-hour, millisecond imaging campaign to detect and
precisely localize an FRB. We observed at 1.4 GHz and produced visibilities
with 5 ms time resolution over 256 MHz of bandwidth. Dedispersed images were
searched for transients with dispersion measures from 0 to 3000 pc/cm3. No
transients were detected in observations of high Galactic latitude fields taken
from September 2013 though October 2014. Observations of a known pulsar show
that images typically had a thermal-noise limited sensitivity of 120 mJy/beam
(8 sigma; Stokes I) in 5 ms and could detect and localize transients over a
wide field of view. Our nondetection limits the FRB rate to less than
7e4/sky/day (95% confidence) above a fluence limit of 1.2 Jy-ms. Assuming a
Euclidean flux distribution, the VLA rate limit is inconsistent with the
published rate of Thornton et al. We recalculate previously published rates
with a homogeneous consideration of the effects of primary beam attenuation,
dispersion, pulse width, and sky brightness. This revises the FRB rate downward
and shows that the VLA observations had a roughly 60% chance of detecting a
typical FRB and that a 95% confidence constraint would require roughly 500
hours of similar VLA observing. Our survey also limits the repetition rate of
an FRB to 2 times less than any known repeating millisecond radio transient.Comment: Submitted to ApJ. 13 pages, 9 figure
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