This thesis details work undertaken in the field of radio astronomy instrumentation. Specific components of the data collection and processing systems used by radio astronomers have been implemented using non-traditional approaches. Traditionally, the correlation of radio astronomy data has taken place on dedicated, specific hardware. This thesis deals with the implementation of equivalent correlators using software running on generic clusters of personal computers - the software approach to radio astronomy. Toward this end a system has been developed that records the raw telescope output onto computer hard drives, allowing easy access to the data on cluster supercomputers. Part of this thesis describes the design, construction, testing and utilisation of these data recording systems. The correlator software used to process these data on supercomputers is also fully described, including extensive tests of the software and a detailed comparison between its output and the output of an existing hardware correlator. The software correlator is shown to produce output that agrees extremely well with the hardware correlator, verifying its accuracy and performance. Finally, results of on-going scientific investigations that use the software correlators described in this thesis are outlined, illustrating the flexibility and usefulness of the software approach to radio astronomy.

Contemporary projects to measure anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) are now detecting hundreds to thousands of extragalactic radio sources, most of them blazars. As a member of a group of CMB scientists involved in the construction of catalogues of such sources and their analysis, I wish to point out the potential value of CMB surveys to studies of AGN jets and their polarization. Current CMB projects, for instance, reach mJy sensitivity, offer wide sky coverage, are blind and generally of uniform sensitivity across the sky (hence useful statistically), make essentially simultaneous multi-frequency observations at frequencies from 30 to 857 GHz, routinely offer repeated observations of sources with interesting cadences and now generally provide polarization measurements. The aim here is not to analyze in any depth the AGN science already derived from such projects, but rather to heighten awareness of their promise for the AGN community.

Galaxy clusters are the largest gravitationally-bound structures in the universe. Since clusters are comprised of hundreds of galaxies, hot X-ray emitting gas, and dark matter, they offer a unique laboratory in which to explore the evolution of large-scale structure and galaxies. To understand how massive, low-redshift galaxy clusters evolve to become what is observed in the modern universe, astronomers need to trace the evolution of progenitor clusters. Though there are thousands of well-studied low-redshift clusters, there are significantly fewer spectroscopically confirmed high-redshift clusters. Because most massive galaxies host supermassive black holes, one cluster tracer at both low and high redshift are active galactic nuclei (AGNs). Specifically, bent, double-lobed radio sources are commonly found in clusters. I find high-redshift clusters hosting bent AGNs and explore their evolution and red sequence galaxies over cosmic time. To characterize cluster evolution, I examine the galaxy populations surrounding each AGN to determine if bent AGNs are commonly found within clusters with evolved red sequence populations. I then identify evolution among the member galaxies in the clusters, I estimate cluster morphology, and I explore the relationship between bent radio source morphology and the surrounding cluster. By measuring the color of each galaxy and the overdensity of galaxies surrounding each AGN, I identify 39 red sequence cluster candidates, 17 of which are at redshifts of z > 1.0. Using my red sequence surface density measurement, I show that each bent AGN is not necessarily centrally located, but is generally within ~ 400 kpc of the cluster center. With this sample, I probe the dynamics of the host galaxies using the radio source morphology and find that most of the radio sources do not follow radial paths relative to the cluster center. By analyzing the morphology of the radio sources in my sample, I find that richer clusters host narrower bent sources. I also see a range of red sequence populations in the clusters, with variations, in particular, among the populations of faint red sequence galaxies. With my surface density measurements, I place preliminary constraints on cluster morphology, finding both relaxed and merging systems.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:13:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AlexsandroPL.pdf: 4519293 bytes, checksum: c4a4db8c9a456e8df376ae0bc81b8b59 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-11-30 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / The great majority of analytical models for extragalactic radio sources suppose self-similarity and can be classified into three types: I, II and III. We have developed a model that represents a generalization of most models found in the literature and showed that these three types are particular cases. The model assumes that the area of the head of the jet varies with the jet size according to a power law and the jet luminosity is a function of time. As it is usually done, the basic hypothesis is that there is an equilibrium between the pressure exerted both by the head of the jet and the cocoon walls and the ram pressure of the ambient medium. The equilibrium equations and energy conservation equation allow us to express the size and width of the source and the pressure in the cocoon as a power law and find the respective exponents. All these assumptions can be used to calculate the evolution of the source size, width and radio luminosity. This can then be compared with the observed width-size relation for radio lobes and the power-size (P-D) diagram of both compact (GPS and CSS) and extended sources from the 3CR catalogue. In this work we introduce two important improvement as compared with a previous work: (1)We have put together a larger sample of both compact and extended radio sources / A grande maioria dos modelos anal?ticos de r?dio fontes extragal?cticas utilizam a hip?tese de auto-similaridade, onde os modelos podem ser classificados em tr?s tipos: I, II e III. N?s desenvolvemos um modelo anal?tico que representa uma generaliza??o dos modelos existentes na literatura e mostramos que os tr?s tipos s?o casos particulares desse modelo. O modelo assume que a ?rea da cabe?a do jato varia com seu tamanho de acordo com uma lei de pot?ncia e que a luminosidade do jato ? uma fun??o do tempo. A hip?tese b?sica comumente usada ? a de que a cabe?a do jato e o casulo se expandem em equil?brio de press?o com o meio ambiente. As equa??es de equil?brio e conserva??o da energia permitem que expressemos o tamanho e largura da fonte e a press?o no casulo como uma lei de pot?ncia e encontremos seus respectivos expoentes. Todas essas suposi??es podem ser usadas para calcular a evolu??o do tamanho e comprimento da fonte e de sua luminosidade r?dio. Podemos comparar esses resultados com as rela??es observadas da largura-tamanho para r?dio l?bulos e diagrama pot?ncia-tamanho (P-D) de fontes compactas (GPS e CSS) e de fontes extensas do cat?logo 3CR. Neste trabalho introduzimos duas importantes melhorias em rela??o `a trabalhos anteriores: (1) Coletamos uma grande amostra de r?dio fontes compactas e extensas com raios de hot spots conhecidos de forma a estabelecer a rela??o entre a ?rea da cabe?a e o tamanho da ponte; (2) O n?mero de fontes em nossa amostra com a largura da ponte medida aumentou consideravelmente em rela??o a trabalhos anteriores. Isso nos permitiu aumentar a gama de tamanhos de fontes em nossa an?lise. Essa compara??o nos possibilita determinar os v?rios par?metros do modelo e entendermos os processos f?sicos envolvidos no fen?meno da evolu??o das r?dio fontes extragal?cticas

Supermassive black holes, black holes with masses <106 Msun, are found at the centers of all massive galaxies. These massive black holes grew from smaller seed black holes through accretion events. Accreting black holes are very bright in the radio through very hard X-ray spectral regimes. Due to the location of these accreting black holes at the centers of galaxies, they are referred to as active galactic nuclei (AGN). It is understood that AGN are an important phase of galaxy evolution; however, the role of AGN in massive galaxy formation is very poorly constrained. Here, the unique tool of multi-wavelength population synthesis modeling is used to study the average properties of AGN and their host galaxies with a focus on host galaxy star formation and the role of black hole growth in galaxy evolution. Knowledge of the AGN population from deep X-ray surveys is combined with theoretical AGN spectral energy distributions to predict various observables of the AGN population in wavelength regions from the far infrared to very hard X-rays. Comparison of the model predictions to observations constrains the model input parameters and allows for the determination of average properties of the AGN population. Particular attention is paid to a special class of AGN known as Compton thick AGN. These AGN are deeply embedded in gas and dust such that the column density obscuring the line of sight to the central engine of the AGN exceeds 1/σT ~ 10²⁴ cm⁻², where σT is the Thomson cross-section of the electron---a column density comparable to that of the human chest. Theoretical and simulational evidence suggest that these Compton thick AGN may be recently triggered, rapidly accreting AGN, making them of special interest to researchers. I found that Compton thick AGN are likely to contribute ~20% of the peak of the cosmic X-ray background (XRB) at ~30 keV and demonstrated that a significant portion of Compton thick AGN may be accreting very rapidly. Moreover, Compton thick AGN do not appear to follow the orientation based unified model of AGN. According to the unified model, AGN exhibit a range of obscuration levels due to a dusty 'torus' which, depending on the orientation of the torus to the observer's line of sight, may obscure the central engine of the AGN. Upon further investigation into the stellar populations of AGN host galaxies, it appears that the unified model holds in general at z < 1, but not at z > 1. I found that this is likely due to the dominant triggering mechanism of AGN switching from major mergers at z > 1.5 to secular processes by z ~ 1.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:14:51Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 AlexandroPL_TESE.pdf: 2798961 bytes, checksum: 9735b37fb7ae9f7941354be3346a5719 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-06-28 / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cient?fico e Tecnol?gico / Double radio sources have been studied since the discovery of extragalactic radio sources in the decade of 1930. Since then, several numerical studies and analytical models have been proposed seeking a better understanding of the physical phenomena that determines the origin and evolution of such objects. In this thesis, we intended to study the evolution problem of the double radio sources in two fronts: in the ?rst we have developed an analytical self-similar model that represents a generalization of most models found in the literature and solve some existent problems related to the jet head evolution. We deal with this problem using samples of hot spot sizes to ?nd a power law relation between the jet head dimension and the source length. Using our model, we were able to draw the evolution curves of the double sources in a PD diagram for both compact sources (GPS and CSS) and extended sources of the 3CR catalogue. We have alson developed a computation tool that allows us to generate synthetic radio maps of the double sources. The objective is to determine the principal physical parameters of those objects by comparing synthetic and observed radio maps. In the second front, we used numeric simulations to study the interaction of the extra- galactic jets with the environment. We simulated situations where the jet propagates in a medium with high density contrast gas clouds capable to block the jet forward motion, forming the distorted structures observed in the morphology of real sources. We have also analyzed the situation in which the jet changes its propagation direction due to a change of the source main axis, creating the X-shaped sources. The comparison between our simulations and the real double radio sources, enable us to determine the values of the main physical parameters responsible for the distortions observed in those objects / As radio fontes duplas tem sido amplamente estudadas desde a descoberta da existencia das radio fontes extragalacticas na decada de 1930. Ha algumas decadas, estudos numericos e modelos analiticos tem sido propostos com o intuito de se obter uma melhor compreensao dos fenomenos f?sicos que determinam a origem e evolu?cao de tais objetos. Nesta tese, nos propusemos a estudar o problema da evolucao das radio fontes duplas em duas frentes: na primeira desenvolvemos um modelo anal?tico auto-similar que, alem de corresponder a uma generalizacao da maioria dos modelos existentes na literatura, e capaz ainda de resolver alguns problemas existentes quanto ?a evolucao da cabeca do jato extragalactico. Nos usamos amostras de tamanhos de hot spots" para encontrar uma relacao em lei de potencia entre as dimensoes da cabeca do jato e o comprimento da fonte. Atraves do nosso modelo, constru?mos as curvas de evolucao de uma radio fonte dupla em um diagrama PD (diagrama que relaciona a potencia radio e a dimensao da fonte) desde fontes compactas (GPS e CSS) ate fontes extensas do catalogo 3CR. Desenvolvemos ainda uma ferramenta computacional que nos permite gerar mapas sinteticos das radio fontes duplas cujo objetivo e determinar os principais parametros fsicos desses objetos atraves da comparacao entre os mapas de fontes observadas, encontrados na literatura, e das fontes sinteticas. Na segunda frente, utilizamos simulacoes numericas para estudar a interacao do jato extragalactico com o meio ambiente. Simulamos situacoes onde o jato pode estar imerso em um meio onde existam nuvens de gas de alto contraste de densidade capazes de bloquear o avanco do jato, formando as estruturas distorcidas observadas na morfologia de fontes reais. Analisamos ainda a situacao em que o jato tem sua direcao de propagacao alterada devido a uma variacao angular no eixo principal da fonte dando origem ?as fontes iii Tipo X. Da comparacao de nossas simulacoes com as radio fontes duplas reais, fomos capazes de determinar os valores dos principais parametros f?sicos responsaveis pelas distorcoes observadas nesses objetos

A considerable number of Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) surveys have been conducted in the northern hemisphere and very few in the southern hemisphere mostly because of a lack of telescopes and therefore adequate baseline coverage. Thus there is a deficit of calibrator sources in the southern hemisphere. Further, some of the most interesting astronomical objects eg. the galactic centre and the nearest galaxies (the small and large Magellanic Clouds) lie in the southern hemisphere and these require high resolution studies. With a major expansion of radio astronomy observing capability on its way in the southern hemisphere (with the two SKA (Square Kilometre Array) precursors, meerKAT (Karoo Array Telescope) and ASKAP (Australian SKA Pathfinder), leading to the SKA itself) it is clear that interferometry and VLBI in the southern hemisphere need a dense network of calibration sources at different resolutions and a range of frequencies. This work seeks to help redress this problem by presenting an analysis of 31 southern sources to help fill the gaps in the southern hemisphere calibrator distribution. We have developed a multi-parameter method of classifying these sources as calibrators. From our sample of 31 sources, we have 2 class A sources (Excellent calibrators), 16 class B sources (Good calibrators), 9 class C sources (Poor calibrators) and 4 class D sources (Unsuitable calibrators).