A sample of 296 faint (> 0.5 mJy) radio sources is selected from an area of the Tenth Cambridge (10C) survey at 15.7 GHz in the Lockman Hole. The 10C survey is complete to 0.5 mJy at 15.7 GHz and has a resolution of 30 arcsec. By matching this catalogue to several lower frequency surveys (e.g. including a deep GMRT survey at 610 MHz, a WSRT survey at 1.4 GHz, NVSS, FIRST and WENSS) I have investigated the radio spectral properties of the sources in this sample; all but 30 of the 10C sources are matched to a source in one or more of these surveys. I have found a significant increase in the proportion of flat spectrum sources at flux densities below 1 mJy – the median spectral index between 15.7 GHz and 610 MHz changes from 0.75 for flux densities greater than 1.5 mJy to 0.08 for flux densities less than 0.8 mJy. Thus a population of faint, flat spectrum sources is emerging at flux densities greater than approximately 1 mJy. The spectral index distribution of this sample of sources selected at 15.7 GHz is compared to those of two samples selected at 1.4 GHz from FIRST and NVSS. I find that there is a significant flat spectrum population present in the 10C sample which is missing from the samples selected at 1.4 GHz. The 10C sample is compared to a sample of sources selected from the SKADS Simulated Sky by Wilman et al.; this simulation fails to reproduce the observed spectral index distribution and significantly under predicts the number of sources in the faintest flux density bin. I conclude that it is likely that the observed faint, flat spectrum sources are a result of the cores of FRI sources becoming dominant at high frequencies, rather than the emergence of a new population of starforming galaxies. I have used recent Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) observations by Middleberg et al. with a resolution of 10 mas to investigate the properties of these faint 10C sources in the Lockman Hole and find that 33 out of the 51 10C sources in the VLBI field (65 percent) are detected by the VLBI observations. The high brightness temperature of these VLBI-detected sources rules out the possibility that this faint, high frequency population is dominated by starbursting or starforming sources and indicates that they must be Active Galactic Nuclei. The sources in the Lockman Hole 10C sample are matched to optical, infrared and Xray data available in the field. A complete sample of 96 sources with high-resolution radio information available is defined; multi-wavelength counterparts are identified for 80 out of the 96 sources in this sample, for which is it possible to derive photometric redshifts. The radioto- optical ratios of these sources show that the 10C sample is almost completely dominated by radio galaxies. 59/80 sources have luminosities greater than the FRI/FRII dividing luminosity. The nature of these radio galaxies is investigated, using the multi-wavelength data to split the sources into high-excitation and low-excitation radio galaxies (HERGs and LERGs respectively). This shows that 34 sources are probably HERGs and 33 are probably LERGs, with 29 which could not be classified at this stage. The properties of these HERGs and LERGs are compared and I find that the HERGs tend to be found at higher redshifts, have flatter spectra, higher flux densities and smaller linear sizes. This study is extended to lower flux densities using new, very deep, observations made with the Arcminute Microkelvin Imager in two fields. I use these observations to extend the 15.7-GHz source count down to 0.1 mJy, a factor of five deeper than the 10C count. These new deeper counts are consistent with the extrapolation of the fit to the 10C count, and do not show any evidence for an upturn. There is therefore no evidence for a new population (e.g. of starforming sources) contributing to the 15.7 GHz source count above 0.1 mJy, and suggesting that the faint, high-frequency population continues to be dominated by radio galaxies. Recent models of the high-frequency source counts under-predict the number of sources observed by a factor of two, consistent with the fact that these models fail to include the dominance of the cores and the faintness of the extended structures of these sources.

Pulsars are laboratories for extreme physics unachievable on Earth. As individual sources and possible orbital companions can be used to study magnetospheric, emission, and superfluid physics, general relativistic effects, and stellar and binary evolution. As populations they exhibit a wide range of sub-types, with parameters varying by many orders of magnitude signifying fundamental differences in their evolutionary history and potential uses. There are currently around 2200 known pulsars in the Milky Way, the Magellanic clouds, and globular clusters, most of which have been discovered with radio survey observations. These observations, as well as being suitable for detecting the repeating signals from pulsars, are well suited for identifying other transient astronomical radio bursts that last just a few milliseconds that either singular in nature, or rarely repeating. Prior to the work of this thesis non-repeating radio transients at extragalactic distances had possibly been discovered, however with just one example status a real astronomical sources was in doubt. Finding more of these sources was a vital to proving they were real and to open up the universe for millisecond-duration radio astronomy. The High Time Resolution Universe survey uses the multibeam receiver on the 64-m Parkes radio telescope to search the whole visible sky for pulsars and transients. The temporal and spectral resolution of the receiver and the digital back-end enable the detection of relatively faint, and distant radio sources. From the Parkes telescope a large portion of the Galactic plane can be seen, a rich hunting ground for radio pulsars of all types, while previously poorly surveyed regions away from the Galactic plane are also covered. I have made a number of pulsar discoveries in the survey, including some rare systems. These include PSR J1226-6208, a possible double neutron star system in a remarkably circular orbit, PSR J1431-471 which is being eclipsed by its companion with each orbit, PSR J1729-2117 which is an unusual isolated recycled pulsar, and PSR J2322-2650 which has a companion of very low mass - just 7 x 10⁻⁴M_⊙, amongst others. I begin this thesis with the study of these pulsars and discuss their histories. In addition, I demonstrate that optical observations of the companions to some of the newly discovered pulsars in the High Time Resolution Universe survey may result in a measurement of their age and that of the pulsar. I have discovered five new extragalactic single radio bursts, confirming them as an astronomical population. These appear to occur frequently, with a rate of 1.0^+0.6_-0.5 x 10⁴ sky⁻¹ day⁻¹. The sources are likely at cosmological distances - with redshifts between 0.45 and 1.45, making them more than half way to the Big Bang in the most distant case. This implies their luminosities must be enormous, 10³¹ to 10³³ J emitted in just a few milliseconds. Their source is unknown but I present an analysis of the options. I also perform a population simulation of the bursts which demonstrates how their intrinsic spectrum could be measured, even for unlocalised FRBs: early indications are that the spectral index of FRBs < 0.

In the fall of 1986 the Galactic Radio Patrol began total power observations with the new seven feed system on the 91 metre radio telescope at Green Bank, W. Virginia. The data were taken at a wavelength of 6 cm, with Nyquist sampling intervals, in the region of the galactic plane corresponding to the coordinate ranges of 1=25 to 225 degrees, and |b| ≤ 5.5 degrees. Existing surveys at 6 cm provide a coverage of the galactic plane over the galactic longitude range 190 to 60 (through 360) degrees. This work is largely complementary in that its coverage is over the galactic longitude range of 25 to 225 degrees. A mapping technique has been developed to fully exploit this data. This technique will allow the mapping of the galactic region with a sensitivity several times that of previously available surveys and with reliable structural information on angular scales of ≤ 1 degree. The above technique was applied to a test region centred upon the supernova remnant G109.1-1.0. The resultant maps were compared to a previously published map of this supernova remnant in order to determine the strengths and reliability of the present reduction method. / Science, Faculty of / Physics and Astronomy, Department of / Graduate

Thesis: Ph. D., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Physics, 1976 / Bibliography: leaves 235-239. / Ph. D. / Ph. D. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Physics

Submitted in fulfilment of the academic requirements for the Degree Master of Engineering: Electrical Engineering, Durban University of Technology. Durban. South Africa, 2015. / This dissertation describes the development and construction of the Multi-frequency Interferometer Telescope for Radio Astronomy (MITRA) at the Durban University of Technology. The MITRA station consists of 2 antenna arrays separated by a baseline distance of 8 m. Each array consists of 8 Log-Periodic Dipole Antennas (LPDAs) operating from 200 MHz to 800 MHz. The design and construction of the LPDA antenna and receiver system is described. The receiver topology provides an equivalent noise temperature of 113.1 K and 55.1 dB of gain. The Intermediate Frequency (IF) stage was designed to produce a fixed IF frequency of 800 MHz. The digital Back-End and correlator were implemented using a low cost Software Defined Radio (SDR) platform and Gnu-Radio software. Gnu-Octave was used for data analysis to generate the relevant received signal parameters including total power, real, and imaginary, magnitude and phase components. Measured results show that interference fringes were successfully detected within the bandwidth of the receiver using a Radio Frequency (RF) generator as a simulated source. This research was presented at the IEEE Africon 2013 / URSI Session Mauritius, and published in the proceedings.

In radio astronomy, a key limiting factor to observations made is the available bandwidth of the system. This thesis looks at two different approaches to building ultra-broadband correlators for use in radio astronomy. The first was a 2-20GHz double-sideband complex analogue correlator that was constructed before the work of this thesis. Characterisation tests are performed and a basic calibration is attempted. Both these sets of experiments show good results, with the basic calibration successfully being able to compensate for gain difference between the lags over a reduced bandwidth range used in the testing. The second approach was the investigation into different techniques for high-speed digital sampling, capable of providing equivalent bandwidths to the analogue system. The use of FPGA high-speed serial interfaces as direct 1-bit 3.125 GS/s samplers was investigated. Single-frequency sampling showed that a signal-to-noise ratio close to the theoretical maximum across the band was achieved (≈ 0.8 effective bits). Techniques were also identified to use multiple transceivers to generate a single interleaved stream at higher effective sampling rate. Two different methods were also explored for producing greater-than 1-bit sampling. A hysteresis approach was shown not to produce the desired results and a reference based sampler in the end was adopted. Finally, the interleaving and multi-bit techniques were combined to generate a single 1.5-bit 6.25 GS/s sampler. This was seen to have reduced signal-to-noise compared to the expected values. This was believed to be caused by the poor method of RF signal injection causing cross-talk between the channels and large amounts of loss. As a comparison to the direct sampling method, an external 1-bit high-speed Hittite comparator was also examined. The single-frequency experiment was repeated with a slightly higher signal-to-noise ratio found compared to the direct sampling method. This was again believed to be due to the RF environments used. From the sampling setups a four-input, six-baseline lag correlator was constructed using the direct sampling method. The entire correlator, as well as the sampling transceivers, was incorporated into a single Xilinx Virtex 5 FPGA. This was shown to have the expected response to single-frequency, broadband and noise signals. The thesis concludes with a characterisation of the RF devices used throughout the testing procedures. Several new devices were developed through the course of the experiments with the designs being documented. All the necessary components to construct IF chains for both the analogue and digital correlators described are present. This leads to simulations being made of complete IF chains, with the expected responses shown.

This dissertation describes the theoretical, laboratory, and astronomical spectroscopy of negative molecular ions (anions), starting with the laboratory detection of the large carbon chain anion C₆H⁻ in the radio band and its identification in the molecular envelope of the carbon star IRC+10216 and in the cold dark molecular cloud TMC-1. In IRC+10216 the identification solved the long standing problem of the unidentified series of lines with rotational constant 1377 MHz first observed by K. Kawaguchi et al. Rotational spectra of the structurally similar anions---CCH⁻, C₄H⁻, C₈H⁻, CN⁻, and C₃N⁻---have been detected in the laboratory, and three more anions---C₄H⁻, C₈H⁻, and C₃N⁻---have now been identified in space. Molecular structure calculations using the CCSD(T) method and large basis sets predicted accurately the rotational constants (B₀) and centrifugal distortion constants (D[subscript J]) of all six anions and their isotopomers, guiding laboratory searches for these species. Reported here are the radio spectra of C₄H⁻, C₆H⁻, C₈H⁻, and C₃N⁻, measured to within 0.1 ppm in the centimeter-wave band by Fourier transform microwave spectroscopy of supersonic molecular beams and in the millimeter-wave band by absorption spectroscopy of low-pressure DC discharges. The spectroscopic constants derived from these measurements are so accurate, that the rotational frequencies of the anions can be calculated to within 1 km s⁻¹, adequate for radio searches in essentially all astronomical molecular sources. Radio astronomical observations with the 100 m Green Bank Telescope (GBT) toward TMC-1 yielded detection of C₈H⁻, as well as an improved estimate of the column density of C₆H⁻. The two anions are surprisingly abundant relative to their neutral radicals: a C₆H⁻/C₆H ratio of 1.6% and a C₈H⁻/C₈H ratio of 5% was derived. Upper limits were obtained for C₄H⁻/C₄H (< 0.004%) and C₃N⁻/C₃N (< 0.8%). A survey of C₆H⁻ and the related radicals C₄H and C₆H was done with the GBT toward 24 galactic molecular sources. The C₆H⁻ ion was newly detected in two dark clouds: L1544 and L1521F; C₄H was detected in nearly all dark clouds surveyed (in six for the first time); and C₆H was newly detected in five dark clouds and a translucent cloud. The observed C₆H⁻/C₆H (1%-4%) and C₆H/C₄H (0.2%-1%) ratios suggest that C₆H⁻ may be close to detection in many other dark clouds. / text

No description available.

The Magellanic Clouds have long provided a rich celestial laboratory for many astrophysical research programmes. Their location relatively close to the Earth and away from the plane of our Galaxy has made them a natural target for Southern Hemisphere ground-based instrumentation. Likewise, the continuing quest for images of the Clouds with higher dynamic range and improved angular resolution has driven a continual improvement in instrumentation across a range of wavelength bands. The cornerstone of this thesis is a study of selected sources in the Magellanic Clouds. The sample was chosen from the 843MHz Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope survey of the Clouds, based on the existing knowledge of each source, its flux density and angular extent. This sample was used to explore observational and analysis techniques with the Australia Telescope Compact Array in order to better determine the nature of these objects and to identify those sources worthy of further study. This work highlights many pertinent issues associated with the correct classification of sources when only a limited amount of data is available. These issues led directly to the development of a more systematic approach in the classification of the Large Magellanic Cloud source sample, detailed for the first time in this thesis. Two supernova remnants in the Small Magellanic Cloud were studied in detail. The Australia Telescope images of 1E0102.2-7219 revealed, for the first time, the radio structure of this young oxygen-rich supernova remnant, and allowed a detailed comparison with existing optical and X-ray data to be undertaken. The comparisons presented in this thesis and in an earlier publication have prompted exciting new X-ray observations at unprecedented angular resolution. The second, 0101-7226, studied as part of an international collaboration, has a shell morphology at radio wavelengths but no associated X-ray emission and is therefore something of an enigma.

by Alain Charles Louis Brian篮. / Originally published as thesis (Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, M.S. and E.E., 1983). / Includes bibliographies. / Supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant NAS8-34545