Search

Interferometric millimeter observations of the cosmic microwave background and clusters of galaxies with arcmin resolutions require antenna arrays with short spacings. Having all antennas co-mounted on a single steerable platform sets limits to the overall weight. A 25 kg lightweight novel carbon-fiber design for a 1.2 m diameter Cassegrain antenna is presented. The finite element analysis predicts excellent structural behavior under gravity, wind and thermal load. The primary and secondary mirror surfaces are aluminum coated with a thin TiO$_2$ top layer for protection. A low beam sidelobe level is achieved with a Gaussian feed illumination pattern with edge taper, designed based on feedhorn antenna simulations and verified in a far field beam pattern measurement. A shielding baffle reduces inter-antenna coupling to below $\sim$ -135 dB. The overall antenna efficiency, including a series of efficiency factors, is estimated to be around 60%, with major losses coming from the feed spillover and secondary blocking. With this new antenna, a detection rate of about 50 clusters per year is anticipated in a 13-element array operation., Comment: 35 pages, 14 figures; accepted for publication in PASP

We investigate the contamination of the Sunyaev--Zel'dovich (SZ) effect for six galaxy clusters, A1689, A1995, A2142, A2163, A2261, and A2390, observed by the Y. T. Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy during 2007. With the range of baselines used, we find that the largest effect (of order 13%-50% of the central SZ flux density) comes from primary anisotropies in the cosmic microwave background and exceeds the thermal noise in all six cases. Contamination from discrete radio sources is estimated to be at a level of (3%-60%) of the central SZ flux density. We use the statistics of these contaminating sources to estimate and correct the errors in the measured SZ effects of these clusters., Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures

A wideband analog correlator has been constructed for the Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy. Lag correlators using analog multipliers provide large bandwidth and moderate frequency resolution. Broadband IF distribution, backend signal processing and control are described. Operating conditions for optimum sensitivity and linearity are discussed. From observations, a large effective bandwidth of around 10 GHz has been shown to provide sufficient sensitivity for detecting cosmic microwave background variations., Comment: 28 pages, 23 figures, ApJ in press.

The Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect (SZE) has been observed toward six massive galaxy clusters, at redshifts 0.091 \leq z \leq 0.322 in the 86-102 GHz band with the Y. T. Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA). We modify an iterative method, based on the isothermal \beta-models, to derive the electron temperature T_e, total mass M_t, gas mass M_g, and integrated Compton Y within r_2500, from the AMiBA SZE data. Non-isothermal universal temperature profile (UTP) \beta models are also considered in this paper. These results are in good agreement with those deduced from other observations. We also investigate the embedded scaling relations, due to the assumptions that have been made in the method we adopted, between these purely SZE-deduced T_e, M_t, M_g and Y. Our results suggest that cluster properties may be measurable with SZE observations alone. However, the assumptions built into the pure-SZE method bias the results of scaling relation estimations and need further study., Comment: Accepted by ApJ; 9 pages, 6 figures, 4 tables

We investigate the scaling relations between the X-ray and the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect (SZE) properties of clusters of galaxies, using data taken during 2007 by the Y.T. Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA) at 94 GHz for the six clusters A1689, A1995, A2142, A2163, A2261, and A2390. The scaling relations relate the integrated Compton-y parameter Y_{2500} to the X-ray derived gas temperature T_{e}, total mass M_{2500}, and bolometric luminosity L_X within r_{2500}. Our results for the power-law index and normalization are both consistent with the self-similar model and other studies in the literature except for the Y_{2500}-L_X relation, for which a physical explanation is given though further investigation may be still needed. Our results not only provide confidence for the AMiBA project but also support our understanding of galaxy clusters., Comment: Accepted by ApJ; 8 pages, 3 figures, 5 tables

The Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA) is a radio interferometer for research in cosmology, currently operating 7 0.6m diameter antennas co-mounted on a 6m diameter platform driven by a hexapod mount. AMiBA is currently the largest hexapod telescope. We briefly summarize the hexapod operation with the current pointing error model. We then focus on the upcoming 13-element expansion with its potential difficulties and solutions. Photogrammetry measurements of the platform reveal deformations at a level which can affect the optical pointing and the receiver radio phase. In order to prepare for the 13-element upgrade, two optical telescopes are installed on the platform to correlate optical pointing tests. Being mounted on different locations, the residuals of the two sets of pointing errors show a characteristic phase and amplitude difference as a function of the platform deformation pattern. These results depend on the telescope's azimuth, elevation and polarization position. An analytical model for the deformation is derived in order to separate the local deformation induced error from the real hexapod pointing error. Similarly, we demonstrate that the deformation induced radio phase error can be reliably modeled and calibrated, which allows us to recover the ideal synthesized beam in amplitude and shape of up to 90% or more. The resulting array efficiency and its limits are discussed based on the derived errors., Comment: Proc. SPIE, Vol. 7018, 70181L (2008), Advanced Optical and Mechanical Technologies in Telescopes and Instrumentation; uses spie.cls

The Y. T. Lee Array for Microwave Background (AMiBA) has reported the first science results on the detection of galaxy clusters via the Sunyaev Zel'dovich effect. The science objectives required small reflectors in order to sample large scale structures (20') while interferometry provided modest resolutions (2'). With these constraints, we designed for the best sensitivity by utilizing the maximum possible continuum bandwidth matched to the atmospheric window at 86-102GHz, with dual polarizations. A novel wide-band analog correlator was designed that is easily expandable for more interferometer elements. MMIC technology was used throughout as much as possible in order to miniaturize the components and to enhance mass production. These designs will find application in other upcoming astronomy projects. AMiBA is now in operations since 2006, and we are in the process to expand the array from 7 to 13 elements., Comment: 10 pages, 6 figures, ApJ in press; a version with high resolution figures available at http://www.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/~keiichi/upfiles/AMiBA7/mtc_highreso.pdf

The Y.T. Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA) started scientific operation in early 2007. This work describes the optimization of the system performance for the measurements of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect for six massive galaxy clusters at redshifts $0.09 - 0.32$. We achieved a point source sensitivity of $63\pm 7$ mJy with the seven 0.6m dishes in 1 hour of on-source integration in 2-patch differencing observations. We measured and compensated for the delays between the antennas of our platform-mounted interferometer. Beam switching was used to cancel instrumental instabilities and ground pick up. Total power and phase stability were good on time scales of hours, and the system was shown to integrate down on equivalent timescales of 300 hours per baseline/correlation, or about 10 hours for the entire array. While the broadband correlator leads to good sensitivity, the small number of lags in the correlator resulted in poorly measured bandpass response. We corrected for this by using external calibrators (Jupiter and Saturn). Using Jupiter as the flux standard, we measured the disk brightness temperature of Saturn to be $149^{+5}_{-12}$ K., Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in ApJ

AMiBA is the largest hexapod astronomical telescope in current operation. We present a description of this novel hexapod mount with its main mechanical components -- the support cone, universal joints, jack screws, and platform -- and outline the control system with the pointing model and the operating modes that are supported. The AMiBA hexapod mount performance is verified based on optical pointing tests and platform photogrammetry measurements. The photogrammetry results show that the deformations in the inner part of the platform are less than 120 micron rms. This is negligible for optical pointing corrections, radio alignment and radio phase errors for the currently operational 7-element compact configuration. The optical pointing error in azimuth and elevation is successively reduced by a series of corrections to about 0.4 arcmin rms which meets our goal for the 7-element target specifications., Comment: Accepted for ApJ, 33 pages, 15 figures

We describe methods used to validate data from the Y.T. Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA), an interferometric array designed to measure the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect and the anisotropy of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). We perform several statistical tests on data from pointed galaxy cluster observations taken in 2007 and noise data from long-term blank sky observations and measurements with the feeds covered by the absorbers. We apply power spectrum analysis, cross power spectrum analysis among different outputs with different time lags in our analog correlator, and sample variance law tests to noise data. We find that (1) there is no time variation of electronic offsets on the time scale of our two-patch observations (~10 minutes); (2) noise is correlated by less than 10% between different lags; and (3) the variance of noise scales with the inverse of time. To test the Gaussianity of the data, we apply Kolmogorov-Smirnov (K-S) tests to cluster data, and find that a 5% significance level efficiently detects data sets with known hardware problems without rejecting an excess of acceptable data. We also calculate third- and fourth-order moments and cumulants for the noise residual visibilities and find that about 95% of our data are within the 99% confidence regions of Gaussianity., Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

The Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA) is the first interferometer dedicated to studying the cosmic microwave background (CMB) radiation at 3mm wavelength. The choice of 3mm was made to minimize the contributions from foreground synchrotron radiation and Galactic dust emission. The initial configuration of seven 0.6m telescopes mounted on a 6-m hexapod platform was dedicated in October 2006 on Mauna Loa, Hawaii. Scientific operations began with the detection of a number of clusters of galaxies via the thermal Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect. We compare our data with Subaru weak lensing data in order to study the structure of dark matter. We also compare our data with X-ray data in order to derive the Hubble constant., Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ (13 pages, 7 figures); a version with high resolution figures available at http://www.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/~keiichi/upfiles/AMiBA7/pho_highreso.pdf

We present a multiwavelength analysis of a sample of four hot (T_X>8keV) X-ray galaxy clusters (A1689, A2261, A2142, and A2390) using joint AMiBA Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect (SZE) and Subaru weak lensing observations, combined with published X-ray temperatures, to examine the distribution of mass and the intracluster medium (ICM) in massive cluster environments. Our observations show that A2261 is very similar to A1689 in terms of lensing properties. Many tangential arcs are visible around A2261, with an effective Einstein radius \sim 40 arcsec (at z \sim 1.5), which when combined with our weak lensing measurements implies a mass profile well fitted by an NFW model with a high concentration c_{vir} \sim 10, similar to A1689 and to other massive clusters. The cluster A2142 shows complex mass substructure, and displays a shallower profile (c_{vir} \sim 5), consistent with detailed X-ray observations which imply recent interaction. The AMiBA map of A2142 exhibits an SZE feature associated with mass substructure lying ahead of the sharp north-west edge of the X-ray core suggesting a pressure increase in the ICM. For A2390 we obtain highly elliptical mass and ICM distributions at all radii, consistent with other X-ray and strong lensing work. Our cluster gas fraction measurements, free from the hydrostatic equilibrium assumption, are overall in good agreement with published X-ray and SZE observations, with the sample-averaged gas fraction of = 0.133 \pm 0.027, for our sample = (1.2 \pm 0.1) \times 10^{15} M_{sun} h^{-1}. When compared to the cosmic baryon fraction f_b = \Omega_b/\Omega_m constrained by the WMAP 5-year data, this indicates /f_b = 0.78 \pm 0.16, i.e., (22 \pm 16)% of the baryons are missing from the hot phase of clusters., Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ; high resolution figures available at http://www.asiaa.sinica.edu.tw/~keiichi/upfiles/AMiBA7/ms_highreso.pdf