EMBRACE@Nançay: an ultra wide field of view prototype for the SKA

Steeve A. Torchinsky (1) , A.O.H. Olofsson (2) , B. Censier (1) , A. Karastergiou (3, 4, 5) , M. Serylak (1, 6) , P. Renaud (1) , C. Taffoureau (1)

1 USN - Unité Scientifique de la Station de Nançay
2 OSO - Onsala Space Observatory
3 Oxford Astrophysics
4 Department of Physics-Electronics
5 Department of Physics and Astronomy [South Africa]
6 LPC2E - Laboratoire de Physique et Chimie de l'Environnement et de l'Espace

A revolution in radio receiving technology is underway with the development of densely packed phased arrays for radio astronomy. This technology can provide an exceptionally large field of view, while at the same time sampling the sky with high angular resolution. Such an instrument, with a field of view of over 100 square degrees, is ideal for performing fast, all-sky, surveys, such as the ``intensity mapping'' experiment to measure the signature of Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations in the HI mass distribution at cosmological redshifts. The SKA, built with this technology, will be able to do a billion galaxy survey. I will present a very brief introduction to radio interferometry, as well as an overview of the Square Kilometre Array project. This will be followed by a description of the EMBRACE prototype and a discussion of results and future plans.

Keywords: radio astronomy; interferometry; Square Kilometre Array; radio astronomy

Domains: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic [astro-ph.IM]; Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysic [astro-ph.IM]

Steeve A. Torchinsky, A.O.H. Olofsson, B. Censier, A. Karastergiou, M. Serylak, et al.. EMBRACE@Nançay: an ultra wide field of view prototype for the SKA. Journal of Instrumentation, 2015, 10 (C07002), 16 p. ⟨10.1088/1748-0221/10/07/C07002⟩. ⟨insu-01344291⟩