18 December 2003

Speaker: Jacqueline Hewitt (MIT)

Title: LOFAR as a Radio Large-Aperture Synoptic Survey Telescope

Abstract: LOFAR is a low-frequency radio array under development by a Netherlands-US-Australia collaboration. Made up of a large number of small antenna elements with full digitization at the antenna, LOFAR will make possible qualitatively new types of observations of the radio sky. One planned observing mode features a very wide field and high time resolution. This "All-Sky Monitor" will have many applications, including studies of variable sources and the epoch of reionization.

References for students:

1. http://www.lofar.org
2. Tozzi et al. "Radio Signatures of HI at High Redshift: Mapping the End of the "Dark Ages."" 2000, ApJ, 528, 597.
3. Usov and Katx "Low Frequency Radio Pulses from Gamma-Ray Bursts? 2000, AandA, 364, 655.