A nova is a cataclysmic variable star consisting of a white dwarf and a main sequence, subgiant or red giant companion. In a nova explosion, the white dwarf undergoes a thermonuclear runaway on its surface, as a result of build-up of accreted material from its companion. This leads to a large expulsion of matter from the WD surface, as well as a dramatic increase in the optical magnitude of the system. In this thesis, 5GHz C-band e-MERLIN observations of two novae (V959 Mon and V339 Del) and one symbiotic star (AG Pegasi) are presented. V959 Mon is a classical nova which was discovered in June 2012 by the Fermi Large Area Telescope as a gamma-ray source. High resolution e-MERLIN images of V959 Mon were made at six epochs following the June 2012 outburst, between 90 and 615 days after the Fermi discovery. The first four e-MERLIN observations revealed a morphology which was aspherical and expanding in the east-west direction. However, in the last two epochs, V959 Mon's ejecta morphology changed from being elongated east-west to being elongated north-south. Constant velocity models fit to measurements of V959 Mon's angular size at each epoch indicated that the expansion rate of the north-south component was significantly slower than that of the east-west component. The e-MERLIN observations of V339 Del and AG Pegasi were not as well resolved as the observations of V959 Mon, and only limited analysis of their ejecta structure was possible. In order to understand the complicated morphology seen in the e-MERLIN observations of V959 Mon, radio emission models of nova ejecta were constructed, and e-MERLIN observations of them were simulated. When constructing the models, two possible explanations for V959 Mon's morphology were explored. Firstly, the possibility was considered that the elongation observed in V959 Mon's ejecta, which changed over time from east- west to north-south, was spurious, resulting from incomplete sampling of the uv plane by e-MERLIN. To investigate this, an expanding spherical shell of ejecta was simulated, the extent to which its shape was distorted in simulated e-MERLIN images of it was investigated. Secondly, emission from an ejecta model featuring two components - one fast-moving component in the east-west direction, and another, more slow-moving component in the north-south direction - was simulated, in order to determine whether such an ejecta structure could result in the morphology seen in the e-MERLIN observations of V959 Mon. It was found that the spherical, Hubble flow model simulations were a reasonably good fit to V959 Mon's light curve, but could not explain the east-west elongation seen in V959 Mon's ejecta at the early epochs. Simulated observations of the two-component model were morphologically similar to V959 Mon, but produced light curves which were much fainter than V959 Mon's, indicating that a more in-depth analysis of two-component models of nova ejecta is necessary.

As new radio telescopes and processing facilities are being built, the amount of data that has to be processed is growing continuously. This poses significant challenges, especially if the real-time processing is required, which is important for surveys looking for poorly understood objects, such as Fast Radio Bursts, where quick detection and localisation can enable rapid follow-up observations at different frequencies. With the data rates increasing all the time, new processing techniques using the newest hardware, such as GPUs, have to be developed. A new pipeline, called PAFINDER, has been developed to process data taken with a phased array feed, which can generate up to 36 beams on the sky, with data rates of 25 GBps per beam. With the majority of work done on GPUs, the pipeline reaches real-time performance when generating filterbank files used for offline processing. The full real-time processing, including single-pulse searches has also been implemented and has been shown to perform well under favourable conditions. The pipeline was successfully used to record and process data containing observations of RRAT J1819-1458 and positions on the sky where 3 FRBs have been observed previously, including the repeating FRB121102. Detailed examination of J1819-1458 single-pulse detections revealed a complex emission environment with pulses coming from three different rotation phase bands and a number of multi-component emissions. No new FRBs and no repeated bursts from FRB121102 have been detected. The GMRT High Resolution Southern Sky survey observes the sky at high galactic latitudes, searching for new pulsars and FRBs. 127 hours of data have been searched for the presence of any new bursts, with the help of new pipeline developed for this survey. No new FRBs have been found, which can be the result of bad RFI pollution, which was not fully removed despite new techniques being developed and combined with the existing solutions to mitigate these negative effects. Using the best estimates on the total amount of data that has been processed correctly, obtained using new single-pulse simulation software, no detections were found to be consistent with the expected rates for standard candle FRBs with a flat or positive spectrum.

Compact Objects (Neutron Stars) form in the last moments of a star's life, during the violent events known as supernovae. As the star's core fusion falters, matter undergoes a dramatic gravitational compression resulting in internal densities rivaling subatomic particles. Ever since their discovery in the mid-twentieth century, these highly magnetized and rapidly rotating balls of condensed matter have provided a bountiful playground for astronomers seeking out exotic physics. Neutron Stars that emit electromagnetic radiation are seen by observers as Pulsars, named such for the pulse of intensity as the pulsar's radiation beam passes into our line of sight. These beams are comprised of two unique regions with differing phenomenology; core emission that arises close to the pulsar polar cap and centered within the radiation beam, and higher altitude conal emission that lies along the beam's periphery. While pulsars can and do emit over a wide frequency range, most known pulsars are seen as radio sources, at sensitivities where studies of the pulsar single-pulses allows us to probe the rich details of the plasma-filled pulsar magnetosphere. Even then, the radio emission often has a steep spectra, restricting the frequencies in which radio telescopes can study pulsars. We have utilized the unmatched sensitivity of Arecibo Observatory to conduct a multi-frequency single-pulse survey, between 327 MHz and the novel 4.5 GHz, of Arecibo's brightest high-frequency pulsars. The broad frequency range and single-pulse resolutions have allowed us to set accurate beam classifications for these nearly two dozen pulsars while extending constraints on important population trends to higher frequencies. Several of the pulsars in our survey exhibit deviant behavior, and are thus useful as followup case studies to further our understanding of pulsar radio emission. One of the most interesting cases involves pulsar B0823+26, where we find evidence for an age-dependent death-line separating core and conal dominated pulsars, suggesting that the plasma generating capabilities of a pulsar changes as they age. For the other three, they fall in the ``Partial Cone'' class; a type of pulsar that is characterized by strong delays in their emission. We find that all three of these pulsars show evidence of core emission.

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.

This thesis is concerned with the observation and study of meteors with a narrow beam VHF radar operated by the University of Adelaide at the Buckland Park research station, in particular the study of the structure and characteristics of meteor showers and the geocentric speeds of meteors. There have been several observations of meteors with the radar previously (Steel & Elford 1991, Cervera 1996, Taylor et al. 1996), but this is the first with an automated data analysis directed to a systematic study of the properties of meteor showers. The Buckland Park VHF radar offers significant advantages over the wide beam radars traditionally used for meteor observation. The narrow beam, while reducing the collecting area of the radar, allows observations of much lower electron line densities than a wide beam radar of similar power. It also allows the determination of meteor shower radiants by the use of the radar response function. Pulse repetition frequencies of up to 2000 Hz allow excellent time resolution, and the ability to record in-phase and quadrature data allows the phase information to be used. This phase information is important as it allows the use of the phase information to accurately determine radial wind drifts, and the atmospheric speeds of meteoroids. During 1998, 1999 and 2000, observations were made of a number of meteor showers and the sporadic background. These showed that the η-Aquarid meteor shower was active in these years, and the Orionid and the Leonid showers were detected in 1999. Analysis of the η-Aquarid activity revealed multiple peaks which show that the shower is produced by at least four distinct "filaments", subsets of the meteoroid stream which produces the shower. Not only does the stream have spatial structure, containing groups of particles in different orbits, but also the presence or absence of the peaks in a random fashion from day to day shows that the filaments are themselves made up of clumps of particles. The radar response function is developed and used to determine radiants for the four η-Aquarid filaments. Evidence is given of a significant number of meteors detected at heights which are above the "radar ceiling", a height at which the theoretical initial radius attenuation factor is near zero for radars operating at the frequency of the Buckland Park VHF Radar, and underdense echoes should be impossible to detect. Investigation showed that over 60 % of meteor trails at heights above the ceiling (105 km) were underdense. Not only does the expected meteor height distribution extend up to 130 km, but also another distribution, peaking at 145 km is uncovered. Diffusion coefficients estimated from the decay of echoes are compared to theoretical calculations. There is a general agreement, but a number of meteor trails show slower diffusion than expected. This is attributed to the effect of the Earth's magnetic field. Three methods are used to determine meteoroid speeds using the phase data, each applying to a different type of meteor echo, and in combination, speeds could be determined for over 90 % of all meteor echoes. The first, the pre-t0 method can be applied to transverse meteor echoes with great success, although it may underestimate the speed of weak echoes with speeds under 15 km s-¹. Using the Cauchy approximations to the Fresnel integrals allows speed determination from head echoes which were aliased near the t0-point. Meteor trails which form at a small angle to the boresight of the radar beam are called "down-the-beam" echoes, and a new method is developed to determine the meteoroid speed and deceleration from these. The speed measurements of meteors detected during the η-Aquarids show a strong peak in the distribution at 66 km s-¹, as well as a smaller peak at 50 km s-¹, which may due to a minor shower. The sporadic background shows a broad peak at 25 km s-¹, with a smaller peak at 58 km s-¹. Distributions of the speed of meteors in the sporadic background show good agreement with previous observations (McCrosky & Posen 1961, Nilsson 1962, Elford et al. 1995, Cervera 1996), with the exception of meteoroid speeds smaller than 15 km s-¹, which can be underestimated by the pre-t0 technique. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Physics and Mathematical Physics, 2002.

<p>Molecular spectroscopy at radio wavelengths is a tool well suited for studying the composition and outgassing kinematics of cometary comae. This is particularly true for distant comets, i.e. comets at heliocentric distances greater than a few AU, where the excitation of molecules is inefficient other than for rotational energy levels. At these distances, water sublimation is inefficient, and cometary activity is dominated by outgassing of carbon monoxide.</p><p>An observing campaign is presented, where the millimeter-wave emission from CO in comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 has been studied in detail using the Swedish-ESO Submillimetre Telescope (SEST). Coma models have been used to analyse the spectra. The production of CO is found to have two separate sources, one releasing CO gas on the nuclear dayside, and one extended source, where CO is produced from coma material, proposed to be icy dust grains.</p><p>Radio observations of many molecules in comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) have been carried out in a long-term international effort using several radio telescopes. An overview of the results is presented, describing the evolution of the gas production as the comet passed through the inner Solar system. Spectra recorded using the SEST, primarily of CO, for heliocentric distances from 3 to 11 AU are analysed in detail, also using coma models.</p><p>The concept of icy grains constituting the extended source discovered in comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 is examined by theoretical modelling of micrometre-sized ice/dust particles at 6 AU from the Sun. It is shown that that such grains can release their content of volatiles on timescales similar to that found for the extended source.</p>

No description available.

Molecular spectroscopy at radio wavelengths is a tool well suited for studying the composition and outgassing kinematics of cometary comae. This is particularly true for distant comets, i.e. comets at heliocentric distances greater than a few AU, where the excitation of molecules is inefficient other than for rotational energy levels. At these distances, water sublimation is inefficient, and cometary activity is dominated by outgassing of carbon monoxide. An observing campaign is presented, where the millimeter-wave emission from CO in comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 has been studied in detail using the Swedish-ESO Submillimetre Telescope (SEST). Coma models have been used to analyse the spectra. The production of CO is found to have two separate sources, one releasing CO gas on the nuclear dayside, and one extended source, where CO is produced from coma material, proposed to be icy dust grains. Radio observations of many molecules in comet C/1995 O1 (Hale-Bopp) have been carried out in a long-term international effort using several radio telescopes. An overview of the results is presented, describing the evolution of the gas production as the comet passed through the inner Solar system. Spectra recorded using the SEST, primarily of CO, for heliocentric distances from 3 to 11 AU are analysed in detail, also using coma models. The concept of icy grains constituting the extended source discovered in comet 29P/Schwassmann-Wachmann 1 is examined by theoretical modelling of micrometre-sized ice/dust particles at 6 AU from the Sun. It is shown that that such grains can release their content of volatiles on timescales similar to that found for the extended source.

This thesis reports the design, construction, and the initial results obtained from a digital spectrograph for observations of radio burst emission from the Sun. One of the distinct advantages of radio spectral studies of the Sun during events such as solar flares, coronal mass ejections (CMEs), etc. is that it gives a straight forward estimate of the speed of the outflowing material into the outer atmosphere of the Sun and subsequently the interplanetary medium. It is well known that in the solar atmosphere, the electron density and consequently the plasma frequency gradually decreases with increasing distance from the center. Therefore in a time-frequency plane, the intensity of the associated radio emission should generally drift from high to low frequencies with time. From this, and from a knowledge of the height of the successive plasma levels in the solar atmosphere, one can deduce the speed of the outward moving disturbance. In this respect, a study of the radio bursts at decameter wavelengths is important since such radiation originates from the corona at heights ≥1.3 R⊙ (1 R⊙ = 6.96 x 10° km = radius of the Sun) from the center of the Sun, which are otherwise accessible only through the use of white light coronagraphs atop high altitude mountains and onboard space vehicles. The primary units of the instrument are (i) zero-crossing detector (ZCD), (ii) sampler and (iii) correlator. The function of the ZCD is to digitize the input signal waveform. In the present case, we use a one-bit quantizer, i.e., its output is either a '1' or '0' depending on whether the input is above or below the zero level, respectively. The digitized signals are then sampled at the Nyquist rate using the sampler. The output of the sampler is then passed through a set of shift registers, and finally fed to the correlator. The latter measures the correlation between the signals at its input as a function of the delay (introduced by the shift registers) between them. After successful completion of several static/dynamic tests in the laboratory, the system was moved to the Gauribidanur radio observatory (Latitude: 13°36’12”; Longitude:77°27’07”), and is presently used along with the existing radiohe-liograph to derive both the spectral and spatial information of the various radio emitting transient sources on the Sun, respectively. The R..F. signal (40-150 MHz) from one of the antenna groups of the ra-dioheliograph forms the input to the spectrograph. The signal from the field goes through a series of amplification and mixing operations to bring it down to an I.F. of 10 MHz with a bandwidth of 1 MHz, and then fed to the spectrograph. The present frequency range of the spectrograph is 40 MHz, and the data corresponding to the above band is obtained in steps of 1 MHz by switching the local oscillator through a GPIB interface, after each integration period. Each 1 MHz data is then Fourier tranformed to get its corresponding power spectrum. Successive data sets are then arranged in order according to the frequency of the local oscillator signal to get the spectrum corresponding to the entire 40 MHz band. The initial results obtained with our instrument are also presented.

In this dissertation, I present my work on the behaviour of different features of radio-loud active galaxies to investigate how energy is transferred from their jets to the environment. To this end, I have studied the knots in the jet in Centaurus A, the radio and X-ray emission from the lobes of the FRII radio galaxies 3C 353 and Pictor A, and the gas properties of a sample of galaxy groups some of which host radio-loud AGN. Using new and archival multi-frequency radio and X-ray data for Centaurus A obtained over almost 20 years with the Very Large Array and with Chandra, I have measured the X-ray and radio spectral indices, flux density variations, polarisation variations and proper motions of the jet knots. I used these measurements to constrain the likely knot formation mechanisms and particle acceleration processes within this jet and compared my results with the variations detected in the properties of the knots in M87. I found that none of the knots are a result of impulsive particle acceleration and that those knots that are detected in both X-ray and radio are likely due to collisions between the jet and an obstacle, while the radio only knots, the majority of which are moving, are likely due to compressions of the fluid flow. Using six frequencies of new and archival radio data and new XMM-Newton observations of 3C 353, I show that inverse-Compton emission is detected in the lobes of this source. By combining this X-ray emission with the radio synchrotron emission, I have constrained the electron population and the magnetic field energy density in the lobes of this radio galaxy. I have argued that the variations in the X-ray/radio ratio in the brighter lobe requires a changing magnetic field strength. I have extended this work using a statistical analysis of the X-ray and radio emission to show that the observed small-scale variation in surface brightness cannot be reproduced by simple combinations of the electron energy distribution and the magnetic field strength. I therefore suggest that the changes in surface brightness that give rise to the filamentary structures seen in the lobes are probably due to strong spatial variations of the magnetic field strength. Finally, I present a study of galaxy groups observed with XMM-Newton in which I measure temperature and surface brightness profiles to examine whether radio-source heating makes radioloud groups hotter and more luminous than radio-quiet groups. I compare my measurements with previous luminosity-temperature relationships and conclude that there is a significant difference in the gas properties of radio-loud and radio-quiet groups.