arXiv subjects

S. Bhatnagar

Publications and source records attributed to S. Bhatnagar.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2016

VLA and ALMA Imaging of Intense, Galaxy-Wide Star Formation in z ~ 2 Galaxies

We present $\simeq$0$.\!\!^{\prime\prime}4$-resolution extinction-independent distributions of star formation and dust in 11 star-forming galaxies (SFGs) at $z = 1.3-3.0$. These galaxies are selected from sensitive, blank-field surveys of the $2' \times 2'$ Hubble Ultra-Deep Field at $λ= 5$ cm and 1.3 mm using the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). They have star-formation rates (SFRs), stellar masses, and dust properties representative of massive main-sequence SFGs at $z \sim 2$. Morphological classification performed on spatially-resolved stellar mass maps indicates a mixture of disk and morphologically disturbed systems; half of the sample harbor X-ray active galactic nuclei (AGN), thereby representing a diversity of $z \sim 2$ SFGs undergoing vigorous mass assembly. We find that their intense star formation most frequently occurs at the location of stellar-mass concentration and extends over an area comparable to their stellar-mass distribution, with a median diameter of $4.2 \pm 1.8$ kpc. This provides direct evidence for galaxy-wide star formation in distant, blank-field-selected main-sequence SFGs. The typical galactic-average SFR surface density is 2.5 M$_{\odot}$yr$^{-1}$kpc$^{-2}$, sufficiently high to drive outflows. In X-ray-selected AGN where radio emission is enhanced over the level associated with star formation, the radio excess pinpoints the AGN, which are found to be co-spatial with star formation. The median extinction-independent size of main-sequence SFGs is two times larger than those of bright submillimeter galaxies whose SFRs are $3-8$ times larger, providing a constraint on the characteristic SFR ($\sim300$ M$_{\odot}$yr$^{-1}$) above which a significant population of more compact star-forming galaxies appears to emerge.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

LOFAR low-band antenna observations of the 3C295 and Bootes fields: source counts and ultra-steep spectrum sources

We present LOFAR Low Band observations of the Bootes and 3C295 fields. Our images made at 34, 46, and 62 MHz reach noise levels of 12, 8, and 5 mJy beam$^{-1}$, making them the deepest images ever obtained in this frequency range. In total, we detect between 300 and 400 sources in each of these images, covering an area of 17 to 52 deg$^{2}$. From the observations we derive Euclidean-normalized differential source counts. The 62 MHz source counts agree with previous GMRT 153 MHz and VLA 74 MHz differential source counts, scaling with a spectral index of $-0.7$. We find that a spectral index scaling of $-0.5$ is required to match up the LOFAR 34 MHz source counts. This result is also in agreement with source counts from the 38 MHz 8C survey, indicating that the average spectral index of radio sources flattens towards lower frequencies. We also find evidence for spectral flattening using the individual flux measurements of sources between 34 and 1400 MHz and by calculating the spectral index averaged over the source population. To select ultra-steep spectrum ($α< -1.1$) radio sources, that could be associated with massive high redshift radio galaxies, we compute spectral indices between 62 MHz, 153 MHz and 1.4 GHz for sources in the Boötes field. We cross-correlate these radio sources with optical and infrared catalogues and fit the spectral energy distribution to obtain photometric redshifts. We find that most of these ultra-steep spectrum sources are located in the $ 0.7 \lesssim z \lesssim 2.5$ range.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

The Deep Full-Stokes Radio Sky

The new broad-band capabilities of large radio interferometers such as the GMRT and JVLA allow for long-integration mosaic imaging observations to create ultra-deep full-polarization images of the sky over wide frequency ranges. Achieving rms sensitivities of order 1 $μ$Jy, these observations explore the radio source population at flux densities well below the regime dominated by classical radio galaxies and Active Galactic Nuclei. We present initial results from radio sources revealed with deep mosaicking observations with the GMRT and JVLA at respectively 0.6 and 5 GHz, and evidence that the $μ$Jy sensitivity level marks the transition to detection of polarized emission from a population of sources dominated by emission from magnetic fields in the disks of starburst and normal galaxies.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2014

Observing the Sun with the Murchison Widefield Array

The Sun has remained a difficult source to image for radio telescopes, especially at the low radio frequencies. Its morphologically complex emission features span a large range of angular scales, emission mechanisms involved and brightness temperatures. In addition, time and frequency synthesis, the key tool used by most radio interferometers to build up information about the source being imaged is not effective for solar imaging, because many of the features of interest are short lived and change dramatically over small fractional bandwidths. Building on the advances in radio frequency technology, digital signal processing and computing, the kind of instruments needed to simultaneously capture the evolution of solar emission in time, frequency, morphology and polarization over a large spectral span with the requisite imaging fidelity, and time and frequency resolution have only recently begun to appear. Of this class of instruments, the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) is best suited for solar observations. The MWA has now entered a routine observing phase and here we present some early examples from MWA observations.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2013

Wide-field wide-band interferometric imaging:The WB A-Projection and hybrid algorithms

Variations of the antenna primary beam (PB) pattern as a function of time, frequency and polarization form one of the dominant direction-dependent effects at most radio frequency bands. These gains may also vary from antenna to antenna. The A-Projection algorithm, published earlier, accounts for the effects of the narrow-band antenna PB in full polarization. In this paper we present the Wide-Band A-Projection algorithm (WB A-Projection) to include the effects of wide bandwidth in the A-term itself and show that the resulting algorithm simultaneously corrects for the time, frequency and polarization dependence of the PB. We discuss the combination of the WB A-Projection and the Multi-term Multi Frequency Synthesis (MT-MFS) algorithm for simultaneous mapping of the sky brightness distribution and the spectral index distribution across a wide field of view. We also discuss the use of the narrow-band A-Projection algorithm in hybrid imaging schemes that account for the frequency dependence of the PB in the image domain.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2012

Applying full polarization A-Projection to very wide field of view instruments: An imager for LOFAR

The aimed high sensitivities and large fields of view of the new generation of interferometers impose to reach high dynamic range of order $\sim$1:$10^6$ to 1:$10^8$ in the case of the Square Kilometer Array. The main problem is the calibration and correction of the Direction Dependent Effects (DDE) that can affect the electro-magnetic field (antenna beams, ionosphere, Faraday rotation, etc.). As shown earlier the A-Projection is a fast and accurate algorithm that can potentially correct for any given DDE in the imaging step. With its very wide field of view, low operating frequency ($\sim30-250$ MHz), long baselines, and complex station-dependent beam patterns, the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) is certainly the most complex SKA precursor. In this paper we present a few implementations of A-Projection applied to LOFAR that can deal with non-unitary station beams and non-diagonal Mueller matrices. The algorithm is designed to correct for all the DDE, including individual antenna, projection of the dipoles on the sky, beam forming and ionospheric effects. We describe a few important algorithmic optimizations related to LOFAR's architecture allowing us to build a fast imager. Based on simulated datasets we show that A-Projection can give dramatic dynamic range improvement for both phased array beams and ionospheric effects. We will use this algorithm for the construction of the deepest extragalactic surveys, comprising hundreds of days of integration.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2011

Observing the End of Cold Flow Accretion using Halo Absorption Systems

We use cosmological SPH simulations to study the cool, accreted gas in two Milky Way-size galaxies through cosmic time to z=0. We find that gas from mergers and cold flow accretion results in significant amounts of cool gas in galaxy halos. This cool circum-galactic component drops precipitously once the galaxies cross the critical mass to form stable shocks, Mvir = Msh ~ 10^12 Msun. Before reaching Msh, the galaxies experience cold mode accretion (T<10^5 K) and show moderately high covering fractions in accreted gas: f_c ~ 30-50% for R<50 co-moving kpc and N_HI>10^16 cm^-2. These values are considerably lower than observed covering fractions, suggesting that outflowing gas (not included here) is important in simulating galaxies with realistic gaseous halos. Within ~500 Myr of crossing the Msh threshold, each galaxy transitions to hot mode gas accretion, and f_c drops to ~5%. The sharp transition in covering fraction is primarily a function of halo mass, not redshift. This signature should be detectable in absorption system studies that target galaxies of varying host mass, and may provide a direct observational tracer of the transition from cold flow accretion to hot mode accretion in galaxies.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

Advances in Calibration and Imaging Techniques in Radio Interferometry

This paper summarizes some of the major calibration and image reconstruction techniques used in radio interferometry and describes them in a common mathematical framework. The use of this framework has a number of benefits, ranging from clarification of the fundamentals, use of standard numerical optimization techniques, and generalization or specialization to new algorithms.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2009

Detection of Signals from Cosmic Reionization using Radio Interferometric Signal Processing

Observations of the HI 21cm transition line promises to be an important probe into the cosmic dark ages and epoch of reionization. One of the challenges for the detection of this signal is the accuracy of the foreground source removal. This paper investigates the extragalactic point source contamination and how accurately the bright sources ($\gtrsim 1$ ~Jy) should be removed in order to reach the desired RMS noise and be able to detect the 21cm transition line. Here, we consider position and flux errors in the global sky-model for these bright sources as well as the frequency independent residual calibration errors. The synthesized beam is the only frequency dependent term included here. This work determines the level of accuracy for the calibration and source removal schemes and puts forward constraints for the design of the cosmic reionization data reduction scheme for the upcoming low frequency arrays like MWA,PAPER, etc. We show that in order to detect the reionization signal the bright sources need to be removed from the data-sets with a positional accuracy of $\sim 0.1$ arc-second. Our results also demonstrate that the efficient foreground source removal strategies can only tolerate a frequency independent antenna based mean residual calibration error of $\lesssim 0.2 %$ in amplitude or $\lesssim 0.2$ degree in phase, if they are constant over each days of observations (6 hours). In future papers we will extend this analysis to the power spectral domain and also include the frequency dependent calibration errors and direction dependent errors (ionosphere, primary beam, etc).

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2009

Calibration and imaging challenges at low radio frequencies: An overview of the state of the art

Many scientific deliverables of the next generation low frequency radio telescopes require high dynamic range imaging. Next generation telescopes under construction indeed promise at least a ten-fold increase in the sensitivity compared with existing telescopes. The projected achievable RMS noise in the images from these telescopes is in the range of 1--10$μ$Jy/beam corresponding to typical imaging dynamic ranges of $10^{6-7}$. High imaging dynamic range require removal of systematic errors to high accuracy and for long integration intervals. In general, many source of errors are directionally dependent and unless corrected for, will be a limiting factor for the imaging dynamic range of these next generation telescopes. This requires development of new algorithms and software for calibration and imaging which can correct for such direction and time dependent errors. In this paper, I discuss the resulting algorithmic and computing challenges and the recent progress made towards addressing these challenges.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2009

Nature of X-shaped sources

The nature of X-shaped sources is a matter of considerable debate: it has even been proposed that they provide evidence for black hole mergers$ / $spin reorientation, and therefore constrain the rate of strong gravitational wave events (Merritt & Ekers 2002). Based on morphological and spectral characteristics of these sources, currently a strong contender to explain the nature of these sources is the `alternative' model of Lal & Rao (2007), in which these sources consist of two pairs of jets, which are associated with two unresolved AGNs. Detailed morphological and spectral results on milliarcsecond-scales (mas) provide a crucial test of this model, and hence these sources are excellent candidates to study on mas; {\it i.e.}, to detect he presence/absence of double nuclei/AGNs, signs of helical/disrupted jets, thereby, to investigate spatially resolved/unresolved binary AGN systems and providing clues to understanding the physics of merging of AGNs on mas. We conducted a systematic study of a large sample of known X-shaped, comparison FR II radio galaxies, and newly discovered X-shaped candidate sources using Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope and Very Large Array at several radio frequencies. In our new observations of `comparison' FR II radio galaxies we find that almost all of our targets show standard spectral steepening as a function of distance from the hotspot. However, one source, 3C 321, has a low-surface-brightness extension that shows a flatter spectral index than the high-surface-brightness hotspots$ / $lobes, as found in `known' X-shaped sources.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2008

The non-coplanar baselines effect in radio interferometry: The W-Projection algorithm

We consider a troublesome form of non-isoplanatism in synthesis radio telescopes: non-coplanar baselines. We present a novel interpretation of the non-coplanar baselines effect as being due to differential Fresnel diffraction in the neighborhood of the array antennas. We have developed a new algorithm to deal with this effect. Our new algorithm, which we call "W-projection", has markedly superior performance compared to existing algorithms. At roughly equivalent levels of accuracy, W-projection can be up to an order of magnitude faster than the corresponding facet-based algorithms. Furthermore, the precision of result is not tightly coupled to computing time. W-projection has important consequences for the design and operation of the new generation of radio telescopes operating at centimeter and longer wavelengths.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2008

Correcting direction-dependent gains in the deconvolution of radio interferometric images

Astronomical imaging using aperture synthesis telescopes requires deconvolution of the point spread function as well as calibration of instrumental and atmospheric effects. In general, such effects are time-variable and vary across the field of view as well, resulting in direction-dependent (DD), time-varying gains. Most existing imaging and calibration algorithms assume that the corruptions are direction independent, preventing even moderate dynamic range full-beam, full-Stokes imaging. We present a general framework for imaging algorithms which incorporate DD errors. We describe as well an iterative deconvolution algorithm that corrects known DD errors due to the antenna power patterns and pointing errors for high dynamic range full-beam polarimetric imaging. Using simulations we demonstrate that errors due to realistic primary beams as well as antenna pointing errors will limit the dynamic range of upcoming higher sensitivity instruments and that our new algorithm can be used to correct for such errors. We have applied this algorithm to VLA 1.4 GHz observations of a field that contains two ``4C'' sources and have obtained Stokes-I and -V images with systematic errors that are one order of magnitude lower than those obtained with conventional imaging tools. Our simulations show that on data with no other calibration errors, the algorithm corrects pointing errors as well as errors due to known asymmetries in the antenna pattern.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2007

An extension of Wick's theorem

We propose an extension of a result by Repetowicz et al. about Wick's theorem and its applications: we first show that Wick's theorem can be extended to the uniform distribution on the sphere and then to the whole class of elliptical distributions. Then, as a special case, we detail this result for distributions that are Gaussian scale mixtures. Finally, we show that these results allow to recover easily a theorem by Folland about integration of polynomials over the sphere.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2004

Radio and near-infrared observations of the steep spectrum Galactic plane radio source WKB 0314+57.8

Radio and near-infared observations towards the steep spectrum Galactic plane radio source WKB 0314+57.8 are presented, in order to clarify the nature of this source. The radio observations include archival and survey data, together with new Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope observations at 617 MHz. The near-infrared observations are in the J and K bands, from the Gemini instrument on the Shane 3-m telescope. The radio observations show that WKB 0314+57.8 is extended, with an very steep spectrum (with flux density proportional to frequency to -2.5 power between 40 MHz and 1.5 GHz). The colour--magnitude diagram constructed from near-infrared observations of the field suggests the presence of a z approx 0.08 galaxy cluster behind the Galactic plane, reddened by about 6 magnitudes of visual extinction. Although the steep spectrum source has no obvious identification, two other radio sources in the field covered by the near-infrared observations have tentative identifications with galaxies. These observations indicate that WKB 0314+57.8 is a relic source in a cluster of galaxies, not a pulsar.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

Scale sensitive deconvolution of interferometric images I. Adaptive Scale Pixel (Asp) decomposition

Deconvolution of the telescope Point Spread Function (PSF) is necessary for even moderate dynamic range imaging with interferometric telescopes. The process of deconvolution can be treated as a search for a model image such that the residual image is consistent with the noise model. For any search algorithm, a parameterized function representing the model such that it fundamentally separates signal from noise will give optimal results. In this paper, the first in a series of forthcoming papers, we argue that in general, spatial correlation length (a measure of the scale of emission) is a stronger separator of the signal from the noise, compared to the strength of the signal alone. Consequently scale sensitive deconvolution algorithms result into more noise-like residuals. We present a scale-sensitive deconvolution algorithm for radio interferometric images, which models the image as a collection of Adaptive Scale Pixels (Asp). Some attempts at optimizing the runtime performance are also presented.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2004

The late time radio emission from SN 1993J at meter wavelengths

We present the investigations of SN 1993J using low frequency observations with the Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope. We analyze the light curves of SN 1993J at 1420, 610, 325 and 243 MHz during $7.5-10$ years since explosion.The supernova has become optically thin early on in the 1420 MHz and 610 MHz bands while it has only recently entered the optically thin phase in the 325 MHz band. The radio light curve in the 235 MHz band is more or less flat. This indicates that the supernova is undergoing a transition from an optically thick to optically thin limit in this frequency band. In addition, we analyze the SN radio spectra at five epochs on day 3000, 3200, 3266, 3460 and 3730 since explosion. Day 3200 spectrum shows a synchrotron cooling break. SN 1993J is the only young supernova for which the magnetic field and the size of the radio emitting region are determined through unrelated methods. Thus the mechanism that controls the evolution of the radio spectra can be identified. We suggest that at all epochs, the synchrotron self absorption mechanism is primarily responsible for the turn-over in the spectra. Light curve models based on free free absorption in homogeneous or inhomogeneous media at high frequencies overpredict the flux densities at low frequencies. The discrepancy is increasingly larger at lower and lower frequencies. We suggest that an extra opacity, sensitively dependent on frequency, is likely to account for the difference at lower frequencies. The evolution of the magnetic field (determined from synchrotron self absorption turn-over) is roughly consistent with $B \propto t^{-1}$. Radio spectral index in the optically thin part evolves from $α\sim 0.8-1.0$ at few tens of days to $\sim 0.6$ in about 10 years.

astro-ph↗

arXiv2003

Low frequency observations of SN 1993J with Giant Meterwave Radio Telescope

In this paper, we discuss the low frequency spectrum of SN 1993J with GMRT. We observed SN 1993J at several epochs in 20cm, 50cm, 90cm and 125cm wavelengths and achieved near simultaneous spectra. We fit synchrotron self absorption (SSA) and free-free models to the data. We compare the size of SN obtained using SSA fits to that of size extrapolated from VLBI measurements at various epochs using public data at earlier epochs. We find that the synchrotron self absorption process is insufficient to reproduce the observed size of the supernova under the assumption of equipartition between magnetic fields and relativistic electrons. We also derive the evolution of spectral index and magnetic field at several epochs.

astro-ph↗