atnf science priorities: 2010 – 2015 ball, braun, edwards, feain, hobbs, johnston,...

ATNF Science Priorities: 2010 – 2015

Ball, Braun, Edwards, Feain, Hobbs, Johnston, McClure-Griffiths

CSIRO - ATNF: Science Priorities 2010-2015

Science directions for ATNF facilities1. International Context2. Likely high impact science3. Specific requirements4. Priorities5. A year in the life

Process• ASA presentation: week of 7 July• Science road-show: week of 21 July• Documents v1 released: 8 August• Web forum: through mid-September• Documents v2 prepared: 10 October• ATSC review: 15/16 October• Documents v3 release: late October• Future ATNF Operations paper to CSIRO Executive: November• ATNF Operations v3 (including detailed planning): December

Science Planning for 2010 – 2015


Science Planning for 2010 – 2015

• Bear 2010 – 2015 time-frame in mind

• Recall priority of:

• Delivering ASKAP

• Operating all ATNF facilities with sustainable budget

• Focus on- and exploit complementarities

• Only modest up-grades likely practical, but don’t stop innovative thinking!

• Extensive community (national and international) input incorporated


ASKAP Priority Science 2010 – 2015

1. Understanding galaxy formation and gas evolution in the nearby Universe through extragalactic HI surveys;

2. The characterization of the radio transient sky through detection and monitoring (including VLBI) of transient and variable sources;

3. Determining the evolution, formation and population of galaxies across cosmic time via high resolution, confusion limited, continuum surveys;

4. Exploring the evolution of magnetic fields in galaxies over cosmic time through polarization surveys.

ATCA & Mopra Priority Science 2010-2015

1. Star Formation;

2. Understanding the Magnetic Universe;

3. Understanding the Variable Sky;

4. Interstellar Gas In and Around the Milky Way and Nearby Galaxies;

5. The Evolution of Galaxies at High Redshift.



Parkes Priority Science 2010 - 2015

1. Pulsar science (timing and searching);

2. Surveys for Diffuse emission;

3. Star formation studies.


LBA Priority Science 2010 – 2015

1. The structure of our Galaxy;

2. Local Group proper motions;

3. Understanding the variable sky;

4. Megamaser cosmology;

5. Jet motions;

6. Pulsar proper motions and parallaxes.


Complimentary Capabilities

• Galaxy formation and gas evolution in the nearby universe

• ASKAP will survey large numbers of HI galaxies in the nearby universe to understand galaxy formation and evolution to z<1.

• Parkes will provide the extremely large-scale context of diffuse intergalactic material between galaxies, and crucial large-scale information for combination with ATCA interferometric data.

• ATCA will provide context of galaxy formation and gas evolution from diffuse interstellar mapping of the Milky Way and nearby galaxies, extended disks, intergalactic gas.



• Pulsar science• Parkes will conduct large area surveys and undertake

regular high precision timing of millisecond pulsars and general timing on regular pulsars.

• LBA will provide information on proper motions and distances.

• ASKAP will ultimately provide precision timing and a wide-field survey capability once the technical and computing challenges are overcome.

• ATCA and Mopra are not expected to have major roles in pulsar science.



• Star formation • ATCA will provide detailed studies of star forming regions

and the dense interstellar gas in the centimetre, 12-mm and 7-mm bands.

• Mopra will specialise in large surveys at 3, 7, & 12 mm to be used for defining ATCA and ALMA samples. Mopra will also provide the large-scale interstellar medium context through millimetre surveys that make use of its large bandwidth.

• Parkes will probe star formation processes through studies of masers.

• LBA studies of maser internal motions will probe the evolution of star formation.

• ASKAP is not expected to have a significant role in Galactic star formation studies.



• Galaxy evolution and population studies across cosmic time

• ASKAP will measure population statistics of AGN and star-forming galaxies through deep, confusion limited all-sky surveys at 1.4 GHz.

• ATCA will be crucial in measuring the spectral energy distribution of AGN and star-forming galaxies between 1 and 50 GHz.

• Parkes and Mopra are not expected to have significant roles in this science area.



• Magnetic fields through cosmic time• ASKAP will create a grid of rotation measures across

the sky to understand the origin of cosmic magnetic fields.

• ATCA will study the diffuse, line-of-sight resolved magneto-ionic medium in the Milky Way and nearby galaxies through broadband spectro-polarimetric observations.

• Parkes will provide essential zero spacing diffuse polarization surveys in the 1-10 GHz range for combination with ATCA and ASKAP data.

• Mopra and the LBA are not expected to have a significant role in this science area.



• Understanding the variable sky• ASKAP will monitor the entire sky everyday – a unique

capability for detecting transients and monitoring variable sources.

• ATCA will provide multi-frequency follow-up of ASKAP/MWA transients.

• LBA will provide high angular resolution follow-up to ASKAP/MWA transients.

• Parkes has the capability to find very fast transients as part of its major pulsar surveys.

• Mopra is not expected to have a significant role in this area.



Breakdown of facilities by science area. The circle size indicates the priority/impact of a given facility in an area.

Potential New Developments 2010 – 2015

Some possible upgrades that could be costed and then put to ATUC for prioritsation

• Extend ATCA N-S baselines to ~400m

• Shift 6 km ATCA antenna to 3 km track

• FPA or MB receivers on Mopra for 3, 7, 12mm

• 12mm FPAs for ATCA

• 12mm FPA or MB for Parkes

• ( Enhance ASKAP configs. and/or NANT )*

• ( Extend ASKAP freq. coverage )*

• New community ideas!

* Would require major (international) resourcing


atnf science priorities: 2010 – 2015 ball, braun, edwards, feain, hobbs, johnston,...

Documents

atnf science priorities

science planning

csiro atnf

science directions

science road

askap priority science

parkes priority science

lba priority science