LOFAR UK

Rob Fender

LOFAR-UK [est. 2004] www.lofar-uk.org

Management committee formed based on internal MoU

P.I. Fender (Southampton) Co-P.I. Rawlings (Oxford)

Current membership (22 institutions):Southampton, Oxford, Cambridge, Portsmouth, RAL, Manchester, Hertfordshire, Edinburgh, Durham, LJMU, Glasgow, UCL, Cardiff, The Open University, ATC, Aberystwyth, Sussex, Kent, QMUL, Sheffield, Leicester

Potential additional members:Nottingham, Warwick

More than 75% of all UK astronomers are effectively signed up – LOFAR(-UK) has dramatically widened the UK radio community – need to keep this alive for SKA

Chilbolton: 600 km baseline (RAL land, to be fibred)

Lords Bridge: 450 km baseline (U. Camb land, e-MERLIN fibre)

Jodrell: 650 km baseline (U. Man land, e-MERLIN fibre)

Edinburgh: 850 km baseline

LOFAR:UKPossible station sites and relation to LOFAR

NL + 3xDE

NL + 3xDE + 3xUK

NL + 3xDE + 1xUK

NL + 3xDE + 2xUK

Chilbolton chosen as first site

STFC-owned site

First LOFAR-UK station to be installed here 2009 Q2/3

Also has high-quality 25m dish which could be added to e-MERLIN

UK science interests (a subset of…)

• Detection of the EoR signal via detection of HI absorption against luminous distant AGN

• Star formation and black hole accretion across cosmological time, gravitational lensing

• Identify northern component of the Pulsar Timing Array

• Identification and study of extragalactic radio bursts, providing probes of the IGM and possible counterparts to gravitational wave sources

• Detection of UHE neutrinos (LHC energies x 50!)

• Sun-Earth interactions: CME creation and propagation

• Origin and distribution of astrophysical magnetic fields

Funding

Currently ~1.4 MEuro ‘in the bank’

In addition six ‘LOFAR’ permanent positions funded in South East, and many PDRAs requested (e.g. joint Oxford/RAL position to work on LOFAR ionospheric calibration)

One UK station (Chilbolton) funded

Request to STFC for further ~5.5 MEuro

Final presentation to funding panel last Friday

Evaluation by end November

Up to 3 additional UK stations, 4 FTEs in long-baseline calibration / data products and transport

LOFAR as part of a coordinated UK radio strategy towards SKA

LOFAR

The major pathfinder for SKA-low / Broadens community

Very Soon

PrepSKA

Development of SKA-mid aperture arrays

~5 years

e-MERLIN

Science with upgraded dishes

Now

120 MHz 15 GHz