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We analyse a 154 MHz image made from a 12 h observation with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) to determine the noise contribution and behaviour of the source counts down to 30 mJy. The MWA image has a bandwidth of 30.72 MHz, a field-of-view within the half-power contour of the primary beam of 570 deg^2, a resolution of 2.3 arcmin and contains 13,458 sources above 5 sigma. The rms noise in the centre of the image is 4-5 mJy/beam. The MWA counts are in excellent agreement with counts from other instruments and are the most precise ever derived in the flux density range 30-200 mJy due to the sky area covered. Using the deepest available source count data, we find that the MWA image is affected by sidelobe confusion noise at the ~3.5 mJy/beam level, due to incompletely-peeled and out-of-image sources, and classical confusion becomes apparent at ~1.7 mJy/beam. This work highlights that (i) further improvements in ionospheric calibration and deconvolution imaging techniques would be required to probe to the classical confusion limit and (ii) the shape of low-frequency source counts, including any flattening towards lower flux densities, must be determined from deeper ~150 MHz surveys as it cannot be directly inferred from higher frequency data., 13 pages, 13 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS

Recent observations with the Murchison Widefield Array at 185~MHz have serendipitously unveiled a heretofore unknown giant and relatively nearby ($z = 0.0178$) radio galaxy associated with NGC\,1534. The diffuse emission presented here is the first indication that NGC\,1534 is one of a rare class of objects (along with NGC\,5128 and NGC\,612) in which a galaxy with a prominent dust lane hosts radio emission on scales of $\sim$700\,kpc. We present details of the radio emission along with a detailed comparison with other radio galaxies with disks. NGC1534 is the lowest surface brightness radio galaxy known with an estimated scaled 1.4-GHz surface brightness of just 0.2\,mJy\,arcmin$^{-2}$. The radio lobes have one of the steepest spectral indices yet observed: $\alpha=-2.1\pm0.1$, and the core to lobe luminosity ratio is $, Comment: 12 pages, 7 figures, accepted MNRAS

We present the first Murchison Widefield Array observations of the well-known cluster of galaxies Abell 3667 (A3667) between 105 and 241 MHz. A3667 is one of the best known examples of a galaxy cluster hosting a double radio relic and has been reported to contain a faint radio halo and bridge. The origins of radio halos, relics and bridges is still unclear, however galaxy cluster mergers seems to be an important factor. We clearly detect the North-West (NW) and South-East (SE) radio relics in A3667 and find an integrated flux density at 149 MHz of 28.1 +/- 1.7 and 2.4 +/- 0.1 Jy, respectively, with an average spectral index, between 120 and 1400 MHz, of -0.9 +/- 0.1 for both relics. We find evidence of a spatial variation in the spectral index across the NW relic steepening towards the centre of the cluster, which indicates an ageing electron population. These properties are consistent with higher frequency observations. We detect emission that could be associated with a radio halo and bridge. How- ever, due to the presence of poorly sampled large-scale Galactic emission and blended point sources we are unable to verify the exact nature of these features., 17 pages, 11 figures

Using the final 128 antenna locations of the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), we calculate its sensitivity to the epoch of reionization (EoR) power spectrum of redshifted 21 cm emission for a fiducial model and provide the tools to calculate the sensitivity for any model. Our calculation takes into account synthesis rotation, chromatic and asymmetrical baseline effects, and excludes modes that will be contaminated by foreground subtraction. For the fiducial model, the MWA will be capable of a 14σ detection of the EoR signal with one full season of observation on two fields (900 and 700 h)., National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AST CAREER-0847753), National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AST-0457585), National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant AST-0908884), National Science Foundation (U.S.) (Grant PHY-0835713), United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (Grant FA9550-0510247), Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, MIT School of Science

Antenna layout is an important design consideration for radio interferometers because it determines the quality of the snapshot point spread function (PSF, or array beam). This is particularly true for experiments targeting the 21 cm Epoch of Reionization signal as the quality of the foreground subtraction depends directly on the spatial dynamic range and thus the smoothness of the baseline distribution. Nearly all sites have constraints on where antennas can be placed---even at the remote Australian location of the MWA (Murchison Widefield Array) there are rock outcrops, flood zones, heritages areas, emergency runways and trees. These exclusion areas can introduce spatial structure into the baseline distribution that enhance the PSF sidelobes and reduce the angular dynamic range. In this paper we present a new method of constrained antenna placement that reduces the spatial structure in the baseline distribution. This method not only outperforms random placement algorithms that avoid exclusion zones, but surprisingly outperforms random placement algorithms without constraints to provide what we believe are the smoothest constrained baseline distributions developed to date. We use our new algorithm to determine antenna placements for the originally planned MWA, and present the antenna locations, baseline distribution, and snapshot PSF for this array choice.

We present a method for subtracting point sources from interferometric radio images via forward modeling of the instrument response and involving an algebraic nonlinear minimization. The method is applied to simulated maps of the Murchison Wide-field Array but is generally useful in cases where only image data are available. After source subtraction, the residual maps have no statistical difference to the expected thermal noise distribution at all angular scales, indicating high effectiveness in the subtraction. Simulations indicate that the errors in recovering the source parameters decrease with increasing signal-to-noise ratio, which is consistent with the theoretical measurement errors. In applying the technique to simulated snapshot observations with the Murchison Wide-field Array, we found that all 101 sources present in the simulation were recovered with an average position error of 10 arcsec and an average flux density error of 0.15%. This led to a dynamic range increase of approximately 3 orders of magnitude. Since all the sources were deconvolved jointly, the subtraction was not limited by source sidelobes but by thermal noise. This technique is a promising deconvolution method for upcoming radio arrays with a huge number of elements, and a candidate for the difficult task of subtracting foreground sources from observations of the 21 cm neutral Hydrogen signal from the epoch of reionization.

We present an analysis of the variations seen in the dispersion measures (DMs) of 20 millisecond pulsars observed as part of the Parkes Pulsar Timing Array project. We carry out a statistically rigorous structure function analysis for each pulsar and show that the variations seen for most pulsars are consistent with those expected for an interstellar medium characterised by a Kolmogorov turbulence spectrum. The structure functions for PSRs J1045-4509 and J1909-3744 provide the first clear evidence for a large inner scale, possibly due to ion-neutral damping. We also show the effect of the solar wind on the DMs and show that the simple models presently implemented into pulsar timing packages cannot reliably correct for this effect. For the first time we clearly show how DM variations affect pulsar timing residuals and how they can be corrected in order to obtain the highest possible timing precision. Even with our presently limited data span, the residuals (and all parameters derived from the timing) for six of our pulsars have been significantly improved by correcting for the DM variations., 16 pages, 6 figures, 5 tables, accepted by MNRAS

We present the results of a high-precision timing campaign directed at the binary millisecond pulsar J1600-3053. Submicrosecond pulsar timing has long been the domain of bright, low dispersion measure millisecond pulsars or large diameter telescopes. This experiment, conducted using the Parkes radio telescope in New South Wales, Australia, and utilizing the latest baseband recording hardware, has allowed this pulsar, although distant and faint, to present residuals to a model of its spin behaviour of 650 ns over a period of more than 2 yr. We have also constrained the orbital inclination via Shapiro delay to be between 59° and 70° to 95 per cent confidence and obtained a scintillation velocity measurement indicating a transverse velocity less than 84 km s-1. This pulsar is demonstrating remarkable stability comparable to, and in most cases improving upon, the very best long-term pulsar timing experiments. If this stability is maintained, the current limits on the energy density of the stochastic gravitational wave background will be reached in four more years. © 2006 RAS.

We describe extremely precise timing experiments performed on five solitary and 10 binary millisecond pulsars during the past 3 yr, with the Caltech Parkes Swinburne Recorder (CPSR2) coherent dedispersion system at the Parkes 64-m radio telescope. 12 of our sources have rms timing residuals below 1.5 μs and four are below 200 ns. The quality of our data allows us to measure eight parallaxes and nine proper motions, from which we conclude that models of galactic electron density still have limited predictive power for individual objects. We derive a mean transverse velocity of 87+31/−14 km s −1 for these pulsars, in good agreement with previous authors. We demonstrate that unless multifrequency observations are made, typical variations in dispersion measure (DM) could introduce an additional drift in arrival times of ∼1 μs per year at 20-cm wavelengths. Our high timing precision means that Shapiro delay can be used to constrain the inclination angles and component masses of all but two of the selected binary systems. The signature of annual orbital parallax is detected in the timing of PSR J0437−4715 and PSR J1713+0747, providing additional geometric constraints. The timing of PSR J1909−3744 is used to demonstrate that the DE405 ephemeris is a better model of the Solar system than the earlier DE200. In addition, we show that pulsar astrometric parameters measured using DE200 and DE405 often differ significantly. In order to use pulsars to search for a cosmological gravitational wave background, it is desirable to time them against each other to eliminate Earth-based time standards. We demonstrate that PSR J1909−3744 can be used as a reference against which we obtain a very small rms residual of 133 ns for PSR J1713+0747. Although the gain of the Parkes antenna is small compared to other telescopes involved in precision timing, we obtain some of the lowest rms residuals ever measured, highlighting the importance of good instrumentation such as CPSR2 and good analysis software.

We describe 2004 May observations of the 22.7-ms 'A' pulsar in the double pulsar binary system, J0737-3039. Our data were obtained with a coherent dedispersion system at 20 and 50 cm wavelength bands, during an intensive 15 d observing session at the Parkes radio telescope. High signal-to-noise-ratio (S/N) polarimetric profiles of the 'A' pulsar are presented; these profiles provide templates against which to search for evolution of the pulse profile in coming years. We measure flux densities for the 'A' pulsar of 1.2 ±0.1 mJy at 1373MHz and 4.2 ± 0.5 mJy at 685 MHz. Faraday rotation is also detected in both bands; the rotation measure of the pulsar is -121 ± 4rad m-2 at 1373MHz and -118.4 ± 0.3 rad m-2 at 685 MHz, implying a mean longitudinal component of the magnetic field of approximately 3 μG along the line of sight to the pulsar. Pulse arrival times from individual 2-min integrations are analysed and we detect a clear signature of Shapiro delay in the timing residuals. Assuming a mass of 1.25 M⊙ for the companion 'B' pulsar, we derive a limit of 88.5-1.1 +0.8° on the inclination angle of the system, almost consistent with the most recent limit of 0.29 ± 0.14° away from 90°, obtained from scintillation studies. The need to obtain many arrival times near inferior conjunction forces us to use low S/N profiles for our analysis. This can lead to unrealistic error estimates if standard timing techniques are used. In an appendix, we describe how to obtain more realistic error estimates and how to avoid some catastrophic consequences of building a standard template profile from low S/N data. © 2005 RAS.

We present high time resolution polarimetric profiles of 27 predominantly southern hemisphere millisecond pulsars, 15 of which have no previously published polarimetry. These observations were made with a new 128-MHz baseband recorder at the Parkes Observatory. There has been some suggestion that millisecond pulsar profiles can undergo radical changes in both pulse shape and polarimetry, mainly due to discrepancies between the Bonn and Jodrell Bank polarimetric studies. If millisecond pulsars are intrinsically unstable, this has ramifications for precision timing and the millisecond pulsar emission mechanism. However, we find ourselves in good agreement with the Jodrell Bank data, and, in most cases, very poor agreement with the Bonn results. The presented polarimetric observations do display some phenomena common to those displayed by normal pulsars, including orthogonal mode transitions in position angle and associated sense changes of circular polarization. The behaviour of the position angle presented by these pulsars is, with some significant exceptions, a shallow or flat sweep across the pulse. This behaviour lends support to theories that suggest millisecond pulsar emission regions are wider, at least in terms of pulse longitude, than those of the normal pulsars. The broad millisecond pulsars J2124-3358 and J2145-0750 display position-angle behaviour that departs significantly from that expected if the magnetic field of these pulsars has a simple dipolar structure.

A soft ultraviolet radiation field, 10.2 eV 2p_3/2) against the Cosmic Microwave Background out to very high redshifts. In particular, the optical depth in the fine-structure line through neutral intergalactic gas surrounding bright quasars during the EoR may reach tau~1e-5. The resulting surface brightness temperature of tens of micro K (in absorption) may be detectable with existing radio telescopes. Motivated by this exciting proposal, we perform a detailed analysis of the transfer of Lyman beta,gamma,delta,... radiation, and re-analyze the detectability of the fine-structure line in neutral intergalactic gas surrounding high-redshift quasars. We find that proper radiative transfer modeling causes the fine-structure absorption signature to be reduced tremendously to tau< 1e-10. We therefore conclude that neutral intergalactic gas during the EoR cannot reveal its presence in the 3-cm fine-structure line to existing radio telescopes.