Search

The lunar technique is a method for maximising the collection area for ultra-high-energy (UHE) cosmic ray and neutrino searches. The method uses either ground-based radio telescopes or lunar orbiters to search for Askaryan emission from particles cascading near the lunar surface. While experiments using the technique have made important advances in the detection of nanosecond-scale pulses, only at the very highest energies has the lunar technique achieved competitive limits. This is expected to change with the advent of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), the low-frequency component of which (SKA-low) is predicted to be able to detect an unprecedented number of UHE cosmic rays. In this contribution, the status of lunar particle detection is reviewed, with particular attention paid to outstanding theoretical questions, and the technical challenges of using a giant radio array to search for nanosecond pulses. The activities of SKA’s High Energy Cosmic Particles Focus Group are described, as is a roadmap by which this group plans to incorporate this detection mode into SKA-low observations. Estimates for the sensitivity of SKA-low phases 1 and 2 to UHE particles are given, along with the achievable science goals with each stage. Prospects for near-future observations with other instruments are also described.

ABSTRACT Our current understanding of radio-loud active galactic nuclei (AGN) comes predominantly from studies at frequencies of 5 GHz and below. With the recent completion of the Australia Telescope 20 GHz (AT20G) survey, we can now gain insight into the high-frequency radio properties of AGN. This paper presents supplementary information on the AT20G sources in the form of optical counterparts and redshifts. Optical counterparts were identified using the SuperCOSMOS data base and redshifts were found from either the 6dF Galaxy Survey or the literature. We also report 144 new redshifts. For AT20G sources outside the Galactic plane, 78.5 per cent have optical identifications and 30.9 per cent have redshift information. The optical identification rate also increases with increasing flux density. Targets which had optical spectra available were examined to obtain a spectral classification. There appear to be two distinct AT20G populations; the high luminosity quasars that are generally associated with point-source optical counterparts and exhibit strong emission lines in the optical spectrum, and the lower luminosity radio galaxies that are generally associated with passive galaxies in both the optical images and spectroscopic properties. It is suggested that these different populations can be associated with different accretion modes (cold-mode or hot-mode). We find that the cold-mode sources have a steeper spectral index and produce more luminous radio lobes, but generally reside in smaller host galaxies than their hot-mode counterparts. This can be attributed to the fact that they are accreting material more efficiently. Lastly, we compare the AT20G survey with the S-cubed semi-empirical (S3-SEX) models and conclude that the S3-SEX models need refining to correctly model the compact cores of AGN. The AT20G survey provides the ideal sample to do this. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT The Planck-ATCA Coeval Observations (PACO) project collected data between 4.5 and 40 GHz for 482 sources selected within the Australia Telescope 20 GHz (AT20G) catalogue and observed with the Australia Telescope Compact Array. Observations were done almost simultaneously with the Planck satellite, in the period between 2009 July and 2010 August. In this paper, we present and discuss the data for the complete sample of 159 sources with SAT20G > 200 mJy in the South Ecliptic Pole region. The Planck Early Release Compact Source Catalogue (ERCSC) contains 57 of our sources. A comparison between the PACO catalogue and the ERCSC confirms that the reliability of the latter is better than 95 per cent. The missing ERCSC sources are typically associated with the Large Magellanic Cloud, the Milky Way or are otherwise extended. The spectral analysis of the PACO faint catalogue shows a spectral steepening of the sources at high frequencies, confirming the results obtained from the PACO bright sample. A comparison with AT20G measurements, carried out, on average, a few years earlier, has demonstrated that, on these time-scales, our sources show a rather high variability with an rms amplitude of ≃40 per cent at 20 GHz. The source spectral properties are found not to vary substantially with flux density, except for an increase in the fraction of steep spectrum sources at fainter flux densities. Our data also allow us to extend by a factor of ≃5 downwards in flux density the source counts at ≃33 and ≃40 GHz obtained from the ERCSC. This allows us to substantially improve our control on the contribution of unresolved extragalactic sources to the power spectrum of small-scale fluctuations in cosmic microwave background maps. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

BSTRACT The Planck Australia Telescope Compact Array ( Planck-ATCA) Co-eval Observations (PACO) have provided flux density measurements of well-defined samples of Australia Telescope 20 GHz (AT20G) radio sources at frequencies below and overlapping with Planck frequency bands, almost simultaneously with Planck observations. We have observed with the ATCA a total of 482 sources in the frequency range between 4.5 and 40 GHz in the period between 2009 July and 2010 August. Several sources were observed more than once. In this paper we present the aims of the project, the selection criteria, and the observation and data reduction procedures. We also discuss the data in total intensity for a complete sample of 189 sources with S20 GHz > 500 mJy, Galactic latitude | b| > 5° and declination δ < −30°, and some statistical analysis of the spectral behaviour and variability of this sample, referred to as the 'bright PACO sample'. Finally, we discuss how these data could be used to transfer absolute calibrations to ground-based telescopes using the cosmic microwave background dipole calibrated flux densities measured by the Planck satellite, and we provide some test fluxes on bright calibrators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australia Telescope 20 GHz (AT20G) survey is a blind survey of the whole Southern sky at 20 GHz with follow-up observations at 4.8, 8.6 and 20 GHz carried out with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) from 2004 to 2008. In this paper we present an analysis of radio spectral properties in total intensity and polarization, sizes, optical identifications and redshifts of the sample of the 5808 extragalactic sources in the survey catalogue of confirmed sources over 6.1 sr in the Southern sky (i.e. the whole Southern sky excluding the strip at Galactic latitude | b| < ). The sample has a flux density limit of 40 mJy. Completeness has been measured as a function of scan region and flux density. Averaging over the whole survey area the follow-up survey is 78 per cent complete above 50 mJy and 93 per cent complete above 100 mJy. 3332 sources with declination have good quality almost simultaneous observations at 4.8, 8.6 and 20 GHz. The spectral analysis shows that the sample is dominated by flat-spectrum sources, with 69 per cent having spectral index . The fraction of flat-spectrum sources decreases from 81 per cent for mJy to 60 per cent for mJy. There is also a clear spectral steepening at higher frequencies with the median decreasing from between 4.8 and 8.6 GHz to between 8.6 and 20 GHz. Simultaneous observations in polarization are available for all the sources at all the frequencies. 768 sources have a good-quality detection of polarized flux density at 20 GHz; 467 of them were also detected in polarization at 4.8 and/or at 8.6 GHz so that it has been possible to compare the spectral behaviour in total intensity and polarization. We have found that the polarized fraction increases slightly with frequency and decreases with flux density. The spectral indices in total intensity and in polarization are, on average, close to each other, but we also found several sources for which the spectral shape of the polarized emission is substantially different from the spectral shape in total intensity. The correlation between the spectral indices in total intensity and in polarization is weaker for flat-spectrum sources. Cross-matches and comparisons have been made with other catalogues at lower radio frequencies, and in the optical, X-ray and -ray bands. Redshift estimates are available for 825 sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present radio and infrared observations of four hyper-compact H ii regions and four ultra-compact H ii regions in the southern Galactic plane. These objects were selected from a blind survey for ultra-compact H ii regions using data from two new radio surveys of the southern sky: the Australia Telescope 20 GHz survey and the second epoch Molonglo Galactic Plane Survey at 843 MHz. To our knowledge, this is the first blind radio survey for hyper- and ultra-compact H ii regions. We have followed up these sources with the Australia Telescope Compact Array to obtain H70α recombination line measurements, higher resolution images at 20 GHz and flux density measurements at 30, 40 and 95 GHz. From this, we have determined sizes and recombination line temperatures as well as modelling the spectral energy distributions to determine emission measures. We have classified the sources as hyper-compact or ultra-compact on the basis of their physical parameters, in comparison with benchmark parameters from the literature. Several of these bright, compact sources are potential calibrators for the low-frequency instrument (30–70 GHz) and the 100 GHz channel of the high-frequency instrument of the Planck satellite mission. They may also be useful as calibrators for the Australia Telescope Compact Array, which lacks good non-variable primary flux calibrators at higher frequencies and in the Galactic plane region. Our spectral energy distributions allow the flux densities within the Planck bands to be determined, although our high-frequency observations show that several sources have excess emission at 95 GHz (3 mm) that cannot be explained by current models. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present the full source catalogue from the Australia Telescope 20 GHz (AT20G) Survey. The AT20G is a blind radio survey carried out at 20 GHz with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) from 2004 to 2008, and covers the whole sky south of declination 0°. The AT20G source catalogue presented here is an order of magnitude larger than any previous catalogue of high-frequency radio sources, and includes 5890 sources above a 20 GHz flux-density limit of 40 mJy. All AT20G sources have total intensity and polarization measured at 20 GHz, and most sources south of declination also have near-simultaneous flux-density measurements at 5 and 8 GHz. A total of 1559 sources were detected in polarized total intensity at one or more of the three frequencies. The completeness of the AT20G source catalogue is 91 per cent above 100 mJy beam−1 and 79 per cent above 50 mJy beam−1 in regions south of declination . North of , some observations of sources between 14 and 20 h in right ascension were lost due to bad weather and could not be repeated, so the catalogue completeness is lower in this region. Each detected source was visually inspected as part of our quality control process, and so the reliability of the final catalogue is essentially 100 per cent. We detect a small but significant population of non-thermal sources that are either undetected or have only weak detections in low-frequency catalogues. We introduce the term Ultra-Inverted Spectrum to describe these radio sources, which have a spectral index and which constitute roughly 1.2 per cent of the AT20G sample. The 20 GHz flux densities measured for the strongest AT20G sources are in excellent agreement with the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe ( WMAP) 5-year source catalogue of Wright et al., and we find that the WMAP source catalogue is close to complete for sources stronger than 1.5 Jy at 23 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We have used the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) at 95 GHz to carry out continuum observations of 130 extragalactic radio sources selected from the Australia Telescope 20 GHz (AT20G) survey. We use a triple-correlation method to measure simultaneous 20- and 95-GHz flux densities for these objects, and over 90 per cent of our target sources are detected at 95 GHz. We demonstrate that the ATCA can robustly measure 95-GHz flux densities with an accuracy of ∼10 per cent in a few minutes for sources stronger than about 50 mJy. We measure the distribution of radio spectral indices in a flux-limited sample of extragalactic sources, and show that the median 20–95 GHz spectral index does not vary significantly with flux density for . This finding allows us to estimate the extragalactic radio source counts at 95 GHz by combining our observed 20–95 GHz spectral-index distribution with the accurate 20-GHz source counts measured in the AT20G survey. Our derived 95-GHz source counts at flux densities above 80 mJy are significantly lower than those found by several previous studies. The main reason is that most radio sources with flat or rising spectra in the frequency range 5–20 GHz show a spectral turnover between 20 and 95 GHz. As a result, there are fewer 95-GHz sources (by almost a factor of 2 at 0.1 Jy) than would be predicted on the basis of extrapolation from the source populations seen in lower-frequency surveys. We also derive the predicted confusion noise in cosmic microwave background surveys at 95 GHz and find a value 20–30 per cent lower than previous estimates. The 95-GHz source population at the flux levels probed by this study is dominated by quasi-stellar objects with a median redshift . We find a correlation between optical magnitude and 95-GHz flux density which suggests that many of the brightest 95-GHz sources may be relativistically beamed, with both the optical and millimetre continuum significantly brightened by Doppler boosting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Australia Telescope 20-GHz (AT20G) Survey is a blind survey of the whole southern sky at 20 GHz (with follow-up observations at 4.8 and 8.6 GHz) carried out with the Australia Telescope Compact Array from 2004 to 2007. The Bright Source Sample (BSS) is a complete flux-limited subsample of the AT20G Survey catalogue comprising 320 extragalactic ) radio sources south of with Jy. Of these, 218 have near simultaneous observations at 8 and 5 GHz. In this paper we present an analysis of radio spectral properties in total intensity and polarization, size, optical identifications and redshift distribution of the BSS sources. The analysis of the spectral behaviour shows spectral curvature in most sources with spectral steepening that increases at higher frequencies (the median spectral index α, assuming , decreases from between 4.8 and 8.6 GHz to between 8.6 and 20 GHz), even if the sample is dominated by flat spectra sources (85 per cent of the sample has . The almost simultaneous spectra in total intensity and polarization allowed us a comparison of the polarized and total intensity spectra: polarized fraction slightly increases with frequency, but the shapes of the spectra have little correlation. Optical identifications provided an estimation of redshift for 186 sources with a median value of 1.20 and 0.13, respectively, for QSO and galaxies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present some first results on the variability, polarization and general properties of radio sources selected at 20 GHz, the highest frequency at which a sensitive radio survey has been carried out over a large area of sky. Sources with flux densities above 100 mJy in the Australia Telescope Compact Array 20 GHz pilot survey at declination −60° to −70° were observed at up to three epochs during 2002–04, including near-simultaneous measurements at 5, 8 and 18 GHz in 2003. Of the 173 sources detected, 65 per cent are candidate QSOs or BL Lac objects, 20 per cent galaxies and 15 per cent faint optical objects or blank fields. On a 1–2 yr time-scale, the general level of variability at 20 GHz appears to be low. For the 108 sources with good-quality measurements in both 2003 and 2004, the median variability index at 20 GHz was 6.9 per cent and only five sources varied by more than 30 per cent in flux density. Most sources in our sample show low levels of linear polarization (typically 1–5 per cent), with a median fractional polarization of 2.3 per cent at 20 GHz. There is a trend for fainter 20 GHz sources to have higher fractional polarization. At least 40 per cent of sources selected at 20 GHz have strong spectral curvature over the frequency range 1–20 GHz. We use a radio ‘two-colour diagram’ to characterize the radio spectra of our sample, and confirm that the flux densities of radio sources at 20 GHz (which are also the foreground point-source population for cosmic microwave background anisotropy experiments like Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and Planck) cannot be reliably predicted by extrapolating from surveys at lower frequencies. As a result, direct selection at 20 GHz appears to be a more efficient way of identifying 90 GHz phase calibrators for Atacama Large Millimeter Array (ALMA) than the currently proposed technique of extrapolation from radio surveys at 1–5 GHz. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As a pilot study for the first all-sky radio survey at short wavelengths, we have observed 1216 deg2 of the southern sky at 18 GHz (16 mm) using a novel wide-band (3.4-GHz bandwidth) analogue correlator on one baseline of the Australia Telescope Compact Array. We scanned a region of sky between declination−71° and−59° with an rms noise level of 15 mJy. Follow-up radio imaging of candidate sources above a 4σ detection limit of 60 mJy resulted in 221 confirmed detections, for which we have measured accurate positions and flux densities. For extragalactic sources, the survey is roughly 70 per cent complete at a flux density of 126 mJy and 95 per cent complete above 300 mJy. Almost half the detected sources lie within a few degrees of the Galactic plane, but there are 123 sources with, which can be assumed to be extragalactic. The differential source counts for extragalactic sources in the rangeare well fitted by a relation of the form, in good agreement with the 15-GHz counts published by Taylor et al. and Waldram et al. Over 70 per cent of the extragalactic sources have a flat radio spectrum, and 29 per cent have inverted radio spectra. The optical identification rate is high: 51 per cent of the extragalactic sources are identified with stellar objects (candidate quasi-stellar objects), 22 per cent with galaxies and only 27 per cent with faint optical objects or blank fields. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The distribution of QSO radio luminosities has long been debated in the literature. Some argue that it is a bimodal distribution, implying that there are two separate QSO populations (normally referred to as “radio-loud” and “radio-quiet”), while others claim it forms a more continuous distribution characteristic of a single population. We use deep observations at 20 GHz to investigate whether the distribution is bimodal at high radio frequencies. Carrying out this study at high radio frequencies has an advantage over previous studies as the radio emission comes predominantly from the core of the active galactic nucleus, and hence probes the most recent activity. Studies carried out at lower frequencies are dominated by the large-scale lobes where the emission is built up over longer timescales (107-108 yr), thereby confusing the sample. Our sample comprises 874 X-ray-selected QSOs that were observed as part of the 6dF Galaxy Survey. Of these, 40% were detected down to a 3σ detection limit of 0.2-0.5 mJy. No evidence of bimodality is seen in either the 20 GHz luminosity distribution or in the distribution of the R20 parameter: the ratio of the radio to optical luminosities traditionally used to classify objects as being either radio-loud or radio-quiet. Previous results have claimed that at low radio luminosities, star formation processes can dominate the radio emission observed in QSOs. We attempt to investigate these claims by stacking the undetected sources at 20 GHz and discuss the limitations in carrying out this analysis. However, if the radio emission was solely due to star formation processes, we calculate that this corresponds to star formation rates ranging from ∼10 M☼ yr–1 to ∼2300 M☼ yr–1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]