arXiv subjects

Geoffrey Bower

Publications and source records attributed to Geoffrey Bower.

10 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

CHIME/FRB Discovery of an Unusual Circularly Polarized Long-Period Radio Transient with an Accelerating Spin Period

We report the discovery of CHIME J1634+44, a Long Period Radio Transient (LPT) unique for two aspects: it is the first known LPT to emit fully circularly polarized radio bursts, and it is the first LPT with a significant spin-up. Given that high circular polarization ($>90$\%) has been observed in FRB~20201124A and in some giant pulses of PSR~B1937+21, we discuss the implications of the high circular polarization of CHIME J1634+44 and conclude its emission mechanism is likely to be ``pulsar-like''. While CHIME J1634+44 has a pulse period of 841 s, its burst arrival patterns are indicative of a secondary 4206 s period, probably associated with binary activity. The timing properties suggest it has a significantly negative period derivative of $\dot{P}=-9.03(0.11)\times 10^{-12}$ s s$^{-1}$. Few systems have been known to spin-up, most notably transitional millisecond pulsars and cataclysmic binaries, both of which seem unlikely progenitors for CHIME J1634+44. If the period was only associated with the spin of the object, then the spin up is likely generated by accretion of material from a companion. If, however, the radio pulse period and the orbital period are locked, as appears to be the case for two other LPTs, the spin up of CHIME J1634+44 could be driven by gravitational wave radiation.

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arXiv2024

AtLAST Science Overview Report

Submillimeter and millimeter wavelengths provide a unique view of the Universe, from the gas and dust that fills and surrounds galaxies to the chromosphere of our own Sun. Current single-dish facilities have presented a tantalising view of the brightest (sub-)mm sources, and interferometers have provided the exquisite resolution necessary to analyse the details in small fields, but there are still many open questions that cannot be answered with current facilities. In this report we summarise the science that is guiding the design of the Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST). We demonstrate how tranformational advances in topics including star formation in high redshift galaxies, the diffuse circumgalactic medium, Galactic ecology, cometary compositions and solar flares motivate the need for a 50m, single-dish telescope with a 1-2 degree field of view and a new generation of highly multiplexed continuum and spectral cameras. AtLAST will have the resolution to drastically lower the confusion limit compared to current single-dish facilities, whilst also being able to rapidly map large areas of the sky and detect extended, diffuse structures. Its high sensitivity and large field of view will open up the field of submillimeter transient science by increasing the probability of serendipitous detections. Finally, the science cases listed here motivate the need for a highly flexible operations model capable of short observations of individual targets, large surveys, monitoring programmes, target of opportunity observations and coordinated observations with other observatories. AtLAST aims to be a sustainable, upgradeable, multipurpose facility that will deliver orders of magnitude increases in sensitivity and mapping speeds over current and planned submillimeter observatories.

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arXiv2024

The key science drivers for the Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST)

Sub-mm and mm wavelengths provide a unique view of the Universe, from the gas and dust that fills and surrounds galaxies to the chromosphere of our own Sun. Current single-dish facilities have presented a tantalising view of the brightest (sub-)mm sources, and interferometers have provided the exquisite resolution necessary to analyse the details in small fields, but there are still many open questions that cannot be answered with current facilities: Where are all the baryons? How do structures interact with their environments? What does the time-varying (sub-)mm sky look like? In order to make major advances on these questions and others, what is needed now is a facility capable of rapidly mapping the sky spatially, spectrally, and temporally, which can only be done by a high throughput, single-dish observatory. An extensive design study for this new facility is currently being undertaken. In this paper, we focus on the key science drivers and the requirements they place on the observatory. As a 50m single dish telescope with a 1-2{\deg} field of view, the strength of the Atacama Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope (AtLAST) is in science where a large field of view, highly multiplexed instrumentation and sensitivity to faint large-scale structure is important. AtLAST aims to be a sustainable, upgradeable, multipurpose facility that will deliver orders of magnitude increases in sensitivity and mapping speeds over current and planned telescopes.

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arXiv2023

The Greenland Telescope: Construction, Commissioning, and Operations in Pituffik

In 2018, the Greenland Telescope (GLT) started scientific observation in Greenland. Since then, we have completed several significant improvements and added new capabilities to the telescope system. This paper presents a full review of the GLT system, a summary of our observation activities since 2018, the lessons learned from the operations in the Arctic regions, and the prospect of the telescope.

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arXiv2022

BURSTT: Bustling Universe Radio Survey Telescope in Taiwan

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are bright millisecond-duration radio transients that appear about 1,000 times per day, all-sky, for a fluence threshold 5 Jy ms at 600 MHz. The FRB radio-emission physics and the compact objects involved in these events are subjects of intense active debate. To better constrain source models, the Bustling Universe Radio Survey Telescope in Taiwan (BURSTT) is optimized to discover and localize a large sample of rare, high-fluence, nearby FRBs. This is the population most amenable to multi-messenger, multi-wavelength follow-up, allowing deeper understanding of source mechanisms. BURSTT will provide horizon-to-horizon sky coverage with a half power field-of-view (FoV) of $\sim$10$^{4}$ deg$^{2}$, a 400 MHz effective bandwidth between 300-800 MHz, and sub-arcsecond localization, made possible using outrigger stations hundreds to thousands of km from the main array. Initially, BURSTT will employ 256 antennas. After tests of various antenna designs and optimization of system performance we plan to expand to 2048 antennas. We estimate that BURSTT-256 will detect and localize $\sim$100 bright ($\geq$100 Jy ms) FRBs per year. Another advantage of BURSTT's large FoV and continuous operation will be greatly enhanced monitoring of FRBs for repetition. The current lack of sensitive all-sky observations likely means that many repeating FRBs are currently cataloged as single-event FRBs.

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arXiv2020

VLA/Realfast Detection of a Burst from FRB180916.J0158+65 and Tests for Periodic Activity

We report on the detection of a burst from FRB180916 by realfast/VLA and present software for interpreting fast radio bursts (FRB) periodicity. We demonstrate a range of periodicity analyses with bursts from FRB180916, FRB121102 and FRB180814. Our results for FRB180916 and FRB121102 are consistent with published results. For FRB180814, we did not detect any significant periodic episodes. The realfast-detected and other high-frequency bursts for FRB180916 tend to lie at the beginning of the activity window, indicating a possible phase-frequency relation. The python package $\texttt{frbpa}$ can be used to reproduce and expand on this analysis to test models for repeating FRBs.

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arXiv2020

A Demonstration of Extremely Low Latency $\gamma$-ray, X-Ray & UV Follow-Up of a Millisecond Radio Transient

We report results of a novel high-energy follow-up observation of a potential Fast Radio Burst. The radio burst was detected by VLA/realfast and followed-up by the Neil Gehrels Swift Observatory in very low latency utilizing new operational capabilities of Swift (arXiv:2005.01751), with pointed soft X-ray and UV observations beginning at T0+32 minutes, and hard X-ray/gamma-ray event data saved around T0. These observations are $>10$x faster than previous X-ray/UV follow-up of any radio transient to date. No emission is seen coincident with the FRB candidate at T0, with a 0.2s fluence $5\sigma$ upper limit of $1.35\times10^{-8}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ (14-195 keV) for a SGR 1935+2154-like flare, nor at T0+32 minutes down to $3\sigma$ upper limits of 22.18 AB mag in UVOT u band, and $3.33\times10^{-13}$ erg cm$^{-2}$ s$^{-1}$ from 0.3-10 keV for the 2 ks observation. The candidate FRB alone is not significant enough to be considered astrophysical, so this note serves as a technical demonstration. These new Swift operational capabilities will allow future FRB detections to be followed up with Swift at even lower latencies than demonstrated here: 15-20 minutes should be regularly achievable, and 5-10 minutes occasionally achievable. We encourage FRB detecting facilities to release alerts in low latency to enable this science.

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arXiv2019

Studying Black Holes on Horizon Scales with VLBI Ground Arrays

High-resolution imaging of supermassive black holes is now possible, with new applications to testing general relativity and horizon-scale accretion and relativistic jet formation processes. Over the coming decade, the EHT will propose to add new strategically placed VLBI elements operating at 1.3mm and 0.87mm wavelength. In parallel, development of next-generation backend instrumentation, coupled with high throughput correlation architectures, will boost sensitivity, allowing the new stations to be of modest collecting area while still improving imaging fidelity and angular resolution. The goal of these efforts is to move from imaging static horizon scale structure to dynamic reconstructions that capture the processes of accretion and jet launching in near real time.

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arXiv2017

Large magnetic field variations towards the Galactic Centre magnetar, PSR J1745-2900

Polarised radio emission from PSR J1745-2900 has already been used to investigate the strength of the magnetic field in the Galactic Centre, close to Sagittarius A*. Here we report how persistent radio emission from this magnetar, for over four years since its discovery, has revealed large changes in the observed Faraday rotation measure, by up to 3500 rad m$^{-2}$ (a five per cent fractional change). From simultaneous analysis of the dispersion measure, we determine that these fluctuations are dominated by variations in the projected magnetic field, rather than the integrated free electron density, along the changing line of sight to the rapidly moving magnetar. From a structure function analysis of rotation measure variations, and a recent epoch of rapid change of rotation measure, we determine a minimum scale of magnetic fluctuations of size ~ 2 au at the Galactic Centre distance, inferring PSR J1745-2900 is just ~ 0.1 pc behind an additional scattering screen.

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arXiv2009

Digital Instrumentation for the Radio Astronomy Community

Time-to-science is an important figure of merit for digital instrumentation serving the astronomical community. A digital signal processing (DSP) community is forming that uses shared hardware development, signal processing libraries, and instrument architectures to reduce development time of digital instrumentation and to improve time-to-science for a wide variety of projects. We suggest prioritizing technological development supporting the needs of this nascent DSP community. After outlining several instrument classes that are relying on digital instrumentation development to achieve new science objectives, we identify key areas where technologies pertaining to interoperability and processing flexibility will reduce the time, risk, and cost of developing the digital instrumentation for radio astronomy. These areas represent focus points where support of general-purpose, open-source development for a DSP community should be prioritized in the next decade. Contributors to such technological development may be centers of support for this DSP community, science groups that contribute general-purpose DSP solutions as part of their own instrumentation needs, or engineering groups engaging in research that may be applied to next-generation DSP instrumentation.

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