arXiv subjects

Anna Scaife

Publications and source records attributed to Anna Scaife.

31 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2015

Measuring magnetism in the Milky Way with the Square Kilometre Array

Magnetic fields in the Milky Way are present on a wide variety of sizes and strengths, influencing many processes in the Galactic ecosystem such as star formation, gas dynamics, jets, and evolution of supernova remnants or pulsar wind nebulae. Observation methods are complex and indirect; the most used of these are a grid of rotation measures of unresolved polarized extragalactic sources, and broadband polarimetry of diffuse emission. Current studies of magnetic fields in the Milky Way reveal a global spiral magnetic field with a significant turbulent component; the limited sample of magnetic field measurements in discrete objects such as supernova remnants and HII regions shows a wide variety in field configurations; a few detections of magnetic fields in Young Stellar Object jets have been published; and the magnetic field structure in the Galactic Center is still under debate. The SKA will unravel the 3D structure and configurations of magnetic fields in the Milky Way on sub-parsec to galaxy scales, including field structure in the Galactic Center. The global configuration of the Milky Way disk magnetic field, probed through pulsar RMs, will resolve controversy about reversals in the Galactic plane. Characteristics of interstellar turbulence can be determined from the grid of background RMs. We expect to learn to understand magnetic field structures in protostellar jets, supernova remnants, and other discrete sources, due to the vast increase in sample sizes possible with the SKA. This knowledge of magnetic fields in the Milky Way will not only be crucial in understanding of the evolution and interaction of Galactic structures, but will also help to define and remove Galactic foregrounds for a multitude of extragalactic and cosmological studies.

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arXiv2014

Galaxy Cluster Science with the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect

Studying galaxy clusters through their Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) imprint on the Cosmic Microwave Background has many important advantages. The total SZ signal is an accurate and precise tracer of the total pressure in the intra-cluster medium and of cluster mass, the key observable for using clusters as cosmological probes. Band 5 observations with SKA-MID towards cluster surveys from the next generation of X-ray telescopes such as e-ROSITA and from Euclid will provide the robust mass estimates required to exploit these samples. This will be especially important for high redshift systems, arising from the SZ's unique independence to redshift. In addition, galaxy clusters are very interesting astrophysical systems in their own right, and the SKA's excellent surface brightness sensitivity down to small angular scales will allow us to explore the detailed gas physics of the intra-cluster medium.

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arXiv2014

Studies of Anomalous Microwave Emission (AME) with the SKA

In this chapter, we will outline the scientific motivation for studying Anomalous Microwave Emission (AME) with the SKA. AME is thought to be due to electric dipole radiation from small spinning dust grains, although thermal fluctuations of magnetic dust grains may also contribute. Studies of this mysterious component would shed light on the emission mechanism, which then opens up a new window onto the interstellar medium (ISM). AME is emitted mostly in the frequency range $\sim 10$--100\,GHz, and thus the SKA has the potential of measuring the low frequency side of the AME spectrum, particularly in band 5. Science targets include dense molecular clouds in the Milky Way, as well as extragalactic sources. We also discuss the possibility of detecting rotational line emission from Poly-cyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs), which could be the main carriers of AME. Detecting PAH lines of a given spacing would allow for a definitive identification of specific PAH species.

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arXiv2014

White Paper: Radio Emission and Polarization Properties of Galaxy Clusters with VLASS

We outline the science case for extended radio emission and polarization in galaxy clusters which would be a scientifically important area of research for an upcoming Jansky Very Large Array Sky Survey. The survey would provide a major contribution in three key areas of the physics of clusters: 1) the active galactic nucleus population and the impact of feedback on the evolution of the intra-cluster medium, 2) the origin and evolution of diffuse cluster radio sources to probe the physics of mergers with implications for cosmology, and 3) the origin and role of magnetic fields in the ICM and in large scale structures. Considering all three areas, a survey must have sufficient spatial resolution to study the tailed galaxies which trace the cluster weather as well as the radio lobes driving energy into the cluster from the central AGN. The survey must also have sensitivity to low surface brightness emission and large angular scales to probe radio halos and relics as well as the WHIM residing in the large scale structure filaments. Finally, we note that full polarization information would be a highly valuable tool to probe a number of cluster-related issues. Due to the general steep spectral index of the emission we consider the survey is best suited to this science when conducted in P, L, or S bands. We conclude that the choices of S Band + D Configuration, L Band + C Configuration, and P Band + B Configuration offer optimal resolutions for constraining galactic interactions and feedback in cluster environments, while still probing large scale structure and the bulk cluster environment itself. While the push to probe higher redshifts and lower mass limits strongly favors a narrow and deep (or even targeted) survey strategy, we note that a wide survey covering roughly 1/4-2/3 of the sky will have significant scientific return, discovery potential, and archival value.

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arXiv2013

The LOFAR View of Cosmic Magnetism

The origin of magnetic fields in the Universe is an open problem in astrophysics and fundamental physics. Polarization observations with the forthcoming large radio telescopes will open a new era in the observation of magnetic fields and should help to understand their origin. At low frequencies, LOFAR (10-240 MHz) will allow us to map the structure of weak magnetic fields in the outer regions and halos of galaxies, in galaxy clusters and in the Milky Way via their synchrotron emission. Even weaker magnetic fields can be measured at low frequencies with help of Faraday rotation measures. A detailed view of the magnetic fields in the local Milky Way will be derived by Faraday rotation measures from pulsars. First promising images with LOFAR have been obtained for the Crab pulsar-wind nebula, the spiral galaxy M51, the radio galaxy M87 and the galaxy clusters A2255 and A2256. With help of the polarimetric technique of "Rotation Measure Synthesis", diffuse polarized emission has been detected from a magnetic bubble in the local Milky Way. Polarized emission and rotation measures were measured for more than 20 pulsars so far.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2012

Future Science Prospects for AMI

The Arcminute Microkelvin Imager (AMI) is a telescope specifically designed for high sensitivity measurements of low-surface-brightness features at cm-wavelength and has unique, important capabilities. It consists of two interferometer arrays operating over 13.5-18 GHz that image structures on scales of 0.5-10 arcmin with very low systematics. The Small Array (AMI-SA; ten 3.7-m antennas) couples very well to Sunyaev-Zel'dovich features from galaxy clusters and to many Galactic features. The Large Array (AMI-LA; eight 13-m antennas) has a collecting area ten times that of the AMI-SA and longer baselines, crucially allowing the removal of the effects of confusing radio point sources from regions of low surface-brightness, extended emission. Moreover AMI provides fast, deep object surveying and allows monitoring of large numbers of objects. In this White Paper we review the new science - both Galactic and extragalactic - already achieved with AMI and outline the prospects for much more.

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arXiv2012

The LOFAR Magnetism Key Science Project

Measuring radio waves at low frequencies offers a new window to study cosmic magnetism, and LOFAR is the ideal radio telescope to open this window widely. The LOFAR Magnetism Key Science Project (MKSP) draws together expertise from multiple fields of magnetism science and intends to use LOFAR to tackle fundamental questions on cosmic magnetism by exploiting a variety of observational techniques. Surveys will provide diffuse emission from the Milky Way and from nearby galaxies, tracking the propagation of long-lived cosmic-ray electrons through magnetic field structures, to search for radio halos around spiral and dwarf galaxies and for magnetic fields in intergalactic space. Targeted deep-field observations of selected nearby galaxies and suspected intergalactic filaments allow sensitive mapping of weak magnetic fields through Rotation Measure (RM) grids. High-resolution observations of protostellar jets and giant radio galaxies reveal structures on small physical scales and at high redshifts, whilst pulsar RMs map large-scale magnetic structures of the Galactic disk and halo in revolutionary detail. The MKSP is responsible for the development of polarization calibration and processing, thus widening the scientific power of LOFAR.

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arXiv2011

LOFAR: Recent imaging results & future prospects

The Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) is under construction in the Netherlands and in several surrounding European countries. In this contribution, we describe the layout and design of the telescope, with a particular emphasis on the imaging characteristics of the array when used in its "standard imaging" mode. After briefly reviewing the calibration and imaging software used for LOFAR image processing, we show some recent results from the ongoing imaging commissioning efforts. We conclude by summarizing future prospects for the use of LOFAR in observing the little-explored low frequency Universe.

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arXiv2008

Observations of the Corona Borealis supercluster with the superextended Very Small Array: further constraints on the nature of the non-Gaussian CMB cold spot

We present interferometric imaging at 33 GHz, with the new superextended configuration of the Very Small Array (VSA), of a very deep decrement in the cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature. This decrement is located in the direction of the Corona Borealis supercluster, at a position with no known galaxy clusters, and was discovered by a previous VSA survey (Genova-Santos et al.). A total area of 3 sq.deg. has now been imaged, with an angular resolution of 7 arcmin and a flux sensitivity of 5 mJy/beam. These observations confirm the presence of this strong and resolved negative spot at -41+/-5 mJy/beam (-258+/-29 muK), with a signal to noise level of 8. This structure is also present in the WMAP 5-year data. The temperature of the W-band (94 GHz) data at the position of the decrement agrees within 1.2-sigma with that observed by the VSA at 33 GHz, and within 0.2-sigma with the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich (SZ) spectrum. Our analyses show that it is a non-Gaussian feature in the CMB at a level of 4.8-sigma. The probability of finding such a deviation or larger in CMB Gaussian simulations is only 0.19 per cent. Therefore, an explanation other than primordial CMB is required. We have considered the possibility of an SZ effect generated in a diffuse, extended warm/hot gas distribution. This hypothesis is especially relevant, as the presence of such structures, if confirmed, could provide the location for a significant fraction of the missing baryons in the Local Universe.

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arXiv2007

Constraints on spinning dust towards Galactic targets with the VSA: a tentative detection of excess microwave emission towards 3C396

We present results from observations made at 33 GHz with the Very Small Array (VSA) telescope towards potential candidates in the Galactic plane for spinning dust emission. In the cases of the diffuse HII regions LPH96 and NRAO591 we find no evidence for anomalous emission and, in combination with Effelsberg data at 1.4 and 2.7 GHz, confirm that their spectra are consistent with optically thin free--free emission. In the case of the infra-red bright SNR 3C396 we find emission inconsistent with a purely non-thermal spectrum and discuss the possibility of this excess arising from either a spinning dust component or a shallow spectrum PWN, although we conclude that the second case is unlikely given the strong constraints available from lower frequency radio images.

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arXiv2006

Non-Gaussianity in the Very Small Array CMB maps with Smooth-Goodness-of-fit tests

(Abridged) We have used the Rayner & Best (1989) smooth tests of goodness-of-fit to study the Gaussianity of the Very Small Array (VSA) data. Out of the 41 published VSA individual pointings dedicated to cosmological observations, 37 are found to be consistent with Gaussianity, whereas four pointings show deviations from Gaussianity. In two of them, these deviations can be explained as residual systematic effects of a few visibility points which, when corrected, have a negligible impact on the angular power spectrum. The non-Gaussianity found in the other two (adjacent) pointings seems to be associated to a local deviation of the power spectrum of these fields with respect to the common power spectrum of the complete data set, at angular scales of the third acoustic peak (l = 700-900). No evidence of residual systematics is found in this case, and unsubstracted point sources are not a plausible explanation either. If those visibilities are removed, a cosmological analysis based on this new VSA power spectrum alone shows no differences in the parameter constraints with respect to our published results, except for the physical baryon density, which decreases by 10 percent. Finally, the method has been also used to analyse the VSA observations in the Corona Borealis supercluster region (Genova-Santos et al. 2005), which show a strong decrement which cannot be explained as primordial CMB. Our method finds a clear deviation (99.82%) with respect to Gaussianity in the second-order moment of the distribution, and which can not be explained as systematic effects. A detailed study shows that the non-Gaussianity is produced in scales of l~500, and that this deviation is intrinsic to the data (in the sense that can not be explained in terms of a Gaussian field with a different power spectrum).

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arXiv2004

High sensitivity measurements of the CMB power spectrum with the extended Very Small Array

We present deep Ka-band ($ν\approx 33$ GHz) observations of the CMB made with the extended Very Small Array (VSA). This configuration produces a naturally weighted synthesized FWHM beamwidth of $\sim 11$ arcmin which covers an $\ell$-range of 300 to 1500. On these scales, foreground extragalactic sources can be a major source of contamination to the CMB anisotropy. This problem has been alleviated by identifying sources at 15 GHz with the Ryle Telescope and then monitoring these sources at 33 GHz using a single baseline interferometer co-located with the VSA. Sources with flux densities $\gtsim 20$ mJy at 33 GHz are subtracted from the data. In addition, we calculate a statistical correction for the small residual contribution from weaker sources that are below the detection limit of the survey. The CMB power spectrum corrected for Galactic foregrounds and extragalactic point sources is presented. A total $\ell$-range of 150-1500 is achieved by combining the complete extended array data with earlier VSA data in a compact configuration. Our resolution of $Δ\ell \approx 60$ allows the first 3 acoustic peaks to be clearly delineated. The is achieved by using mosaiced observations in 7 regions covering a total area of 82 sq. degrees. There is good agreement with WMAP data up to $\ell=700$ where WMAP data run out of resolution. For higher $\ell$-values out to $\ell = 1500$, the agreement in power spectrum amplitudes with other experiments is also very good despite differences in frequency and observing technique.

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arXiv2004

Cosmological parameter estimation using Very Small Array data out to l=1500

We estimate cosmological parameters using data obtained by the Very Small Array (VSA) in its extended configuration, in conjunction with a variety of other CMB data and external priors. Within the flat $Λ$CDM model, we find that the inclusion of high resolution data from the VSA modifies the limits on the cosmological parameters as compared to those suggested by WMAP alone, while still remaining compatible with their estimates. We find that $Ω_{\rm b}h^2=0.0234^{+0.0012}_{-0.0014}$, $Ω_{\rm dm}h^2=0.111^{+0.014}_{-0.016}$, $h=0.73^{+0.09}_{-0.05}$, $n_{\rm S}=0.97^{+0.06}_{-0.03}$, $10^{10}A_{\rm S}=23^{+7}_{-3}$ and $τ=0.14^{+0.14}_{-0.07}$ for WMAP and VSA when no external prior is included.On extending the model to include a running spectral index of density fluctuations, we find that the inclusion of VSA data leads to a negative running at a level of more than 95% confidence ($n_{\rm run}=-0.069\pm 0.032$), something which is not significantly changed by the inclusion of a stringent prior on the Hubble constant. Inclusion of prior information from the 2dF galaxy redshift survey reduces the significance of the result by constraining the value of $Ω_{\rm m}$. We discuss the veracity of this result in the context of various systematic effects and also a broken spectral index model. We also constrain the fraction of neutrinos and find that $f_ν< 0.087$ at 95% confidence which corresponds to $m_ν<0.32{\rm eV}$ when all neutrino masses are the equal. Finally, we consider the global best fit within a general cosmological model with 12 parameters and find consistency with other analyses available in the literature. The evidence for $n_{\rm run}<0$ is only marginal within this model.

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