An Australia Telescope survey for CMB anisotropies

We have surveyed six distinct 'empty fields' using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) in an ultracompact configuration with the aim of imaging, with a high brightness sensitivity, any arcminute-scale brightness-temperature anisotropies in the background radio sky. The six well-separated regions were observed at a frequency of 8.7 GHz, and the survey regions were limited by the ATCA primary beams which have a full width at half-maximum of 6 arcmin at this frequency; all fields were observed with a resolution of 2 arcmin and an rms thermal noise of 24 μJy beam⁻¹. After subtracting foreground confusion detected in higher resolution images of the fields, residual fluctuations in Stokes I images are consistent with the expectations from thermal noise and weaker (unidentified) foreground sources; the Stokes Q and U images are consistent with expectations from thermal noise.
Within the sensitivity of our observations, we have no reason to believe that there are any Sunyaev–Zeldovich holes in the microwave sky surveyed. Assuming Gaussian-form CMB anisotropy with a 'flat' spectrum, we derive 95 per cent confidence upper limits of Q _flat<10–11 μK in polarized intensity and Q _flat<25 μK in total intensity. The ATCA filter function peaks at l =4700 and has half-maximum values at l =3350 and 6050.     

The Australia Telescope search for cosmic microwave background anisotropy

In an attempt to detect cosmic microwave background (CMB) anisotropy on arcmin scales, we have made an 8.7-GHz image of a sky region with a resolution of 2 arcmin and high surface brightness sensitivity using the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) in an ultracompact configuration. The foreground discrete-source confusion was estimated from observations with higher resolution at the same frequency and in a scaled array at a lower frequency. Following the subtraction of the foreground confusion, the field shows no features in excess of the instrument noise. This limits the CMB anisotropy flat-band power to Q _flat < 23.6 μ K with 95 per cent confidence; the ATCA filter function (which is available at the website www.atnf.csiro.au/Research/cmbr/cmbr_atca.html) F _l in multipole l -space peaks at l _eff = 4700 and has half-maximum values at l  = 3350 and 6050.     

Analysis of the thin layer of Galactic warm ionized gas in the range

We present an analysis of the thin layer of Galactic warm ionized gas at an angular resolution ∼10 arcmin. This is carried out using radio continuum data at 1.4, 2.7 and 5 GHz in the coordinate region     . For this purpose, we evaluate the zero level of the 2.7- and 5-GHz surveys using auxiliary data at 2.3 GHz and 408 MHz. The derived zero-level corrections are   T _zero(2.7 GHz) = 0.15 ± 0.06 K  and   T _zero(5 GHz) = 0.1 ± 0.05 K  . We separate the thermal (free–free) and non-thermal (synchrotron) component by means of a spectral analysis performed adopting an antenna temperature spectral index −2.1 for the free–free emission, a realistic spatial distribution of indices for the synchrotron radiation and by fitting, pixel-by-pixel, the Galactic spectral index. We find that at 5 GHz, for  | b | = 0°  , the fraction of thermal emission reaches a maximum value of 82 per cent, while at 1.4 GHz, the corresponding value is 68 per cent. In addition, for the thermal emission, the analysis indicates a dominant contribution of the diffuse component relative to the source component associated with discrete H  ii regions.     

The 7C(G) survey of radio sources at 151 MHz — the Galactic plane at 80° < l < 104° and 126° < l < 180°, for |b|≤ 55°.

Results from a survey of the northern Galactic plane (at declination ≳ 30°) at 151 MHz made with the Cambridge Low Frequency Synthesis Telescope are presented. This survey is designated the 7C(G) — i.e. the Galactic portion of the ongoing 7C surveys. This covers the regions 80° <  l  104° and 126° <  l  < 180°, for | b | ≤ 55^°_., and has some coverage to | b | ≈ 9°, with a resolution of ≈ 70 × 70 cossec (δ) arcsec² (RA × Dec.). The observations, data reduction and calibration of this survey are described, and a catalogue of 6262 compact sources, with a completeness limit of ≈ 0.25 Jy over most of the survey region, is presented. The catalogue has an rms positional accuracy of better than 10 arcsec, and the flux densities are tied to the scale of Roger, Bridle & Costain with an accuracy of better than 10 per cent.     

Neural networks and the separation of cosmic microwave background and astrophysical signals in sky maps

We implement an independent component analysis (ICA) algorithm to separate signals of different origin in sky maps at several frequencies. Owing to its self-organizing capability, it works without prior assumptions on either the frequency dependence or the angular power spectrum of the various signals; rather, it learns directly from the input data how to identify the statistically independent components, on the assumption that all but, at most, one of the components have non-Gaussian distributions.
We have applied the ICA algorithm to simulated patches of the sky at the four frequencies (30, 44, 70 and 100 GHz) used by the Low Frequency Instrument of the European Space Agency's Planck satellite. Simulations include the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the synchrotron and thermal dust emissions, and extragalactic radio sources. The effects of the angular response functions of the detectors and of instrumental noise have been ignored in this first exploratory study. The ICA algorithm reconstructs the spatial distribution of each component with rms errors of about 1 per cent for the CMB, and 10 per cent for the much weaker Galactic components. Radio sources are almost completely recovered down to a flux limit corresponding to ≃0.7 σ _CMB, where σ _CMB is the rms level of the CMB fluctuations. The signal recovered has equal quality on all scales larger than the pixel size. In addition, we show that for the strongest components (CMB and radio sources) the frequency scaling is recovered with per cent precision. Thus, algorithms of the type presented here appear to be very promising tools for component separation. On the other hand, we have been dealing here with a highly idealized situation. Work to include instrumental noise, the effect of different resolving powers at different frequencies and a more complete and realistic characterization of astrophysical foregrounds is in progress.     

H I observations of galaxies behind the Milky Way in the Puppis region

We report 21-cm H  i line observations of 161 galaxies located behind the Milky Way, in the Puppis region. The observations have been carried out with the Nançay radio telescope, resulting in 101 detections. Most of the galaxies observed appear in the ESO catalogue, and present apparent diameters larger than 1.6 arcmin. We show that the detection rate is strongly related to the apparent diameter; it is as high as 76 per cent for diameters larger than 1.6 arcmin. Half of the non-detections result, in fact, from an insufficient velocity coverage. Global parameters of the detected galaxies are computed, after a careful discussion of the correction for Galactic absorption. Our H  I data are then compared with those obtained by Kraan-Korteweg & Huchtmeier with the Effelsberg radio telescope for 20 galaxies observed in common: the agreement is excellent, implying respective uncertainties on recession velocities and on H  I fluxes lower than 10 km s⁻¹ and 2 Jy km s⁻¹ on average. Finally, we find that the detected galaxies follow well the correlation between the optical linear diameter and the H  I mass found by Haynes & Giovanelli. This result shows that our diameter corrections for Galactic absorption A_B are quite good, except for eight objects which are heavily obscured ( A_B 2.3), or have a very small diameter, lower than 0.5 arcmin.     

Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe 5-yr constraints on fnl with wavelets

We present a Gaussianity analysis of the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe ( WMAP ) 5-yr cosmic microwave background (CMB) temperature anisotropy data maps. We use several third-order estimators based on the spherical Mexican hat wavelet. We impose constraints on the local non-linear coupling parameter f _nl using well-motivated non-Gaussian simulations. We analyse the WMAP maps at resolution of 6.9 arcmin for the Q , V , and W frequency bands. We use the KQ 75 mask recommended by the WMAP team which masks out 28 per cent of the sky. The wavelet coefficients are evaluated at 10 different scales from 6.9 to 150 arcmin. With these coefficients, we compute the third order estimators which are used to perform a  χ²  analysis. The  χ²  statistic is used to test the Gaussianity of the WMAP data as well as to constrain the f _nl parameter. Our results indicate that the WMAP data are compatible with the Gaussian simulations, and the f _nl parameter is constrained to  −8 < f _nl < +111  at 95 per cent confidence level (CL) for the combined   V + W   map. This value has been corrected for the presence of undetected point sources, which add a positive contribution of  Δ f _nl= 3 ± 5  in the   V + W   map. Our results are very similar to those obtained by the WMAP team using the bispectrum.     

The Australia Telescope 20-GHz (AT20G) Survey: the Bright Source Sample

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  δ=−15°  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   S ∝ν^α  , decreases from  α^8.6_4.8= 0.11  between 4.8 and 8.6 GHz to  α²⁰_8.6=−0.16  between 8.6 and 20 GHz), even if the sample is dominated by flat spectra sources (85 per cent of the sample has  α²⁰_8.6 > −0.5)  . 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.     

Quasars from the 7C survey – I. Sample selection and radio maps

We describe the selection of candidate radio-loud quasars obtained by cross-matching radio source positions from the low-frequency (151-MHz) 7C survey with optical positions from five pairs of EO POSS-I plates scanned with the Cambridge Automatic Plate-measuring Machine (APM). The sky region studied is centred at RA 10^h 28^m, Dec.+41° and covers ≈0.057 sr. We present VLA observations of the quasar candidates, and tabulate various properties derived from the radio maps. We discuss the selection criteria of the resulting '7CQ' sample of radio-loud quasars. The 70 confirmed quasars, and some fraction of the 36 unconfirmed candidates, constitute a filtered sample with the following selection criteria: 151-MHz flux density S ₁₅₁>100 mJy; POSS-I E -plate magnitude E ≈ R <20; POSS-I colour ( O E )<1.8; the effective area of the survey drops significantly below S ₁₅₁≈200 mJy. We argue that the colour criterion excludes few if any quasars, but note, on the basis of recent work by Willott et al., that the E magnitude limit probably excludes more than 50 per cent of the radio-loud quasars.     

Searching for large-scale structure in deep radio surveys

We calculate the expected amplitude of the dipole and higher spherical harmonics in the angular distribution of radio galaxies. The median redshift of radio sources in existing catalogues is z  ∼ 1, which allows us to study large-scale structure on scales between those accessible to present optical and infrared surveys, and that of the cosmic microwave background (CMB). The dipole is a result of two effects which turn out to be of comparable magnitude: (i) our motion with respect to the CMB, and (ii) large-scale structure, parametrized here by a family of cold dark matter power-spectra. We make specific predictions for the Green Bank 1987 (87GB) and Parkes–MIT–NRAO (PMN) catalogues, which in our combined catalogue include ∼ 40 000 sources brighter than 50 mJy at 4.85 GHz, over about 70 per cent of the sky. For these relatively sparse catalogues both the motion and large-scale structure dipole effects are expected to be smaller than the Poisson shot noise. However, we detect dipole and higher harmonics in the combined 87GB–PMN_raw catalogue which are far larger than expected. We attribute this to a 2 per cent flux mismatch between the two catalogues. Ad hoc corrections made in an effort to match the catalogues may suggest a marginal detection of a dipole. To detect a dipole and higher harmonics unambiguously, a catalogue with full sky coverage and ∼ 10⁶ sources is required. We also investigate the existence and extent of the supergalactic plane in the above catalogues. In a strip of ± 10° of the standard supergalactic equator, we find a 3 σ detection in PMN_raw, but only 1 σ in 87 GB_raw. We briefly discuss the implications of ongoing surveys such as FIRST and NVSS and follow-up redshift surveys.     

Rapid mapping of the sky at 240 MHz using the antennas of the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope

In this paper we describe a method for measuring the effective receiver temperature T _erc and its variation for the entire receiver chain of a radio telescope, and use it to make a radio-continuum map of the sky at 240 MHz using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). We also show that in the case of GMRT, T _erc varies mainly with elevation and ambient temperature. The calibration techniques evolved here are applicable to similar interferometers with a large number of antennas, several frequency bands and a number of receiver systems at room temperature (where conventional methods are time-consuming). This method ideally requires just one complete day of observations in a frequency band.     

Wide-field imaging and polarimetry for the biggest and brightest in the 20-GHz southern sky

We present the wide-field imaging and polarimetry at  ν= 20 GHz  of seven most extended, bright  ( S _total≥ 0.50 Jy)  , high-frequency selected radio sources in the southern sky with declinations  δ < −30°  . Accompanying the data are brief reviews of the literature for each source. The results presented here aid in the statistical completeness of the Australia Telescope 20-GHz Survey: the Bright Source Sample. The data are of crucial interest for future cosmic microwave background missions as a collection of information about candidate calibrator sources. We were able to obtain data for seven of the nine sources identified by our selection criteria. We report that Pictor A is thus far the best extragalactic calibrator candidate for the Low Frequency Instrument of the Planck European Space Agency mission due to its high level of integrated polarized flux density  (∼0.50 ± 0.06 Jy)  on a scale of 10 arcmin. Six out of the seven sources have a clearly detected compact radio core in our images, with either a null detection or less than 2 per cent detection of polarized emission from the nuclei. Most sources with detected jets have magnetic field alignments running in a longitudinal configuration, however, PKS 1333−33 exhibits transverse fields and an orthogonal change in field geometry from nucleus to jets.     

The radio galaxy Centaurus B

Centaurus B (PKS B1343−601) is one of the brightest and closest radio galaxies, with flux density ∼250 Jy at 408 MHz and redshift 0.01215, but it has not been studied much because of its position (i) close to the Galactic plane (it is also known as G309.6+1.7 and Kes 19) and (ii) in the southern sky. It has recently been suggested as the centre of a highly obscured cluster behind the Galactic plane. We present radio observations made with the Australia Telescope Compact Array and Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope to study the jets and lobes. The total intensity and polarization radio images of the FR I jets are used to determine the jet brightness and width variations, magnetic field structure and fractional polarization. The equipartition pressure calculated along the jets declines rapidly over the first 1 arcmin from the galaxy reaching a constant pressure of 10⁻¹³  h ^−4/7 Pa in the lobes blown in the intracluster medium.     

Re-identification of G35.6−0.4 as a supernova remnant

G35.6−0.4 is an extended radio source in the Galactic plane which has previously been identified as either a supernova remnant or an H  ii region. Observations from the Very Large Array Galactic Plane Survey at 1.4 GHz with a resolution of 1 arcmin allow the extent of G35.6−0.4 to be defined for the first time. Comparison with other radio survey observations show that this source has a non-thermal spectral index, with   S ∝ν^{−0.47±0.07}  . G35.6−0.4 does not have obvious associated infrared emission, so it is identified as a Galactic supernova remnant, not an H  ii region. It is  ≈15 × 11 arcmin²  in extent, showing partial limb brightening.     

CENSORS: A Combined EIS–NVSS Survey Of Radio Sources – I. Sample definition, radio data and optical identifications

A new sample of radio sources, with the designated name CENSORS (A Combined EIS–NVSS Survey Of Radio Sources), has been defined by combining the National Radio Astronomy Observatory Very Large Array Sky Survey (NVSS) at 1.4 GHz with the ESO Imaging Survey (EIS) Patch D, a 3° by 2° region of sky centred at RA     , Dec. −21°00'00' (J2000). New radio observations of 199 NVSS radio sources with NVSS flux densities   S _{1.4 GHz} > 7.8 mJy  are presented, and are compared with the EIS I -band imaging observations which reach a depth of   I ∼ 23  ; optical identifications are obtained for over two-thirds of the ∼150 confirmed radio sources within the EIS field. The radio sources have a median linear size of 6 arcsec, consistent with the trend for lower flux density radio sources to be less extended. Other radio source properties, such as the lobe flux density ratios, are consistent with those of brighter radio source samples. From the optical information, 30–40 per cent of the sources are expected to lie at redshifts   z ≳ 1.5  .
One of the key goals of this survey is to accurately determine the high-redshift evolution of the radio luminosity function. These radio sources are at the ideal flux density level to achieve this goal; at redshifts   z ∼ 2  they have luminosities which are around the break of the luminosity function and so provide a much more accurate census of the radio source population at those redshifts than the existing studies of extreme, high radio power sources. Other survey goals include investigating the dual-population unification schemes for radio sources, studying the radio luminosity dependence of the evolution of radio source environments, and understanding the radio power dependence of the K – z relation for radio galaxies.     

Distant FR I radio galaxies in the Hubble Deep Field: implications for the cosmological evolution of radio-loud AGN

Deep and high-resolution radio observations of the Hubble Deep Field and flanking fields have shown the presence of two distant edge-darkened FR I radio galaxies, allowing for the first time an estimate of their high-redshift space density. If it is assumed that the space density of FR I radio galaxies at     is similar to that found in the local Universe, then the chance of finding two FR I radio galaxies at these high radio powers in such a small area of sky is < 1 per cent. This suggests that these objects were significantly more abundant at     than at present, effectively ruling out the possibility that FR I radio sources undergo no cosmological evolution. We suggest that FR I and FR II radio galaxies should not be treated as intrinsically distinct classes of objects, but that the cosmological evolution is simply a function of radio power with FR I and FR II radio galaxies of similar radio powers undergoing similar cosmological evolutions. Since low-power radio galaxies have mainly FR I morphologies and high-power radio galaxies have mainly FR II morphologies, this results in a generally stronger cosmological evolution for the FR IIs than the FR Is. We believe that additional support from the V / V _max test for evolving and non-evolving population of FR IIs and FR Is respectively is irrelevant, since this test is sensitive over very different redshift ranges for the two classes.     

The second epoch Molonglo Galactic Plane Survey: compact source catalogue

We present the first data release from the second epoch Molonglo Galactic Plane Survey (MGPS-2). MGPS-2 was carried out with the Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope at a frequency of 843 MHz and with a restoring beam of 45 × 45      arcsec², making it the highest resolution large-scale radio survey of the southern Galactic plane. It covers the range  | b | < 10° and 245° < l < 365°  , and is the Galactic counterpart to the Sydney University Molonglo Sky Survey (SUMSS) which covers the whole southern sky with  δ≤−30° (| b | > 10°  ).
In this paper, we present the MGPS-2 compact source catalogue. The catalogue has 48 850 sources above a limiting peak brightness of 10 mJy beam⁻¹. Positions in the catalogue are accurate to 1–2 arcsec. A full catalogue including extended sources is in preparation. We have carried out an analysis of the compact source density across the Galactic plane and find that the source density is not statistically higher than the density expected from the extragalactic source density alone.
We also present version 2.0 of the SUMSS image data and catalogue which is now available online. The data consist of 629 4.3°× 4.3° mosaic images covering the 8100 deg² of sky with  δ≤−30° and | b | > 10°  . The catalogue contains 210 412 radio sources to a limiting peak brightness of 6 mJy beam⁻¹ at  δ≤−50°  and 10 mJy beam⁻¹ at  δ > −50°  . We describe the updates and improvements made to the SUMSS cataloguing process.     

A deep Giant Metre-wave Radio Telescope 610-MHz survey of the 1HXMM–Newton/Chandra survey field

We present the results of a deep 610-MHz survey of the 1 ^H XMM–Newton / Chandra survey area with the Giant Metre-wave Radio Telescope. The resulting maps have a resolution of ∼7 arcsec and an rms noise limit of 60 μJy. To a 5σ detection limit of 300 μJy, we detect 223 sources within a survey area of 64 arcmin in diameter. We compute the 610-MHz source counts and compare them to those measured at other radio wavelengths. The well-known flattening of the Euclidean-normalized 1.4-GHz source counts below ∼2 mJy, usually explained by a population of starburst galaxies undergoing luminosity evolution, is seen at 610 MHz. The 610-MHz source counts can be modelled by the same populations that explain the 1.4-GHz source counts, assuming a spectral index of −0.7 for the starburst galaxies and the steep spectrum active galactic nucleus (AGN) population. We find a similar dependence of luminosity evolution on redshift for the starburst galaxies at 610 MHz as is found at 1.4 GHz (i.e.  ' Q '= 2.45^+0.3_−0.4  ).     

UBV photometry, UV spectroscopy and radio observations of the peculiar binary V Sagittae

We have performed high-speed UBV photometric observations on the peculiar binary V Sagittae. Using three new eclipse timings we update the orbital ephemeris and convert it to a dynamical time-scale (TDB). We also searched for quasi-periodic oscillations but did not detect them. Using the Wilson–Devinney algorithm we have modelled the light curve to find the stellar parameters of V Sge. We find that the system is a detached binary but that the primary star is very close to filling its Roche lobe, while the secondary star fills 90 per cent of its Roche lobe volume. We find temperatures of the primary and the secondary star to be T ₁=41 000 K and T ₂=22 000 K. We find i =72° and masses of 0.8 M_⊙ and 3.3 M_⊙ for the primary and secondary stars respectively. De-archived Hubble Space Telescope ( HST ) spectroscopy of V Sge shows evidence of mass loss via a wind or winds. In addition we report radio observations of V Sge during an optical high state at 2 cm, 3.6 cm and 6 cm wavelengths. The 3.6 cm emission is increased by a factor of more than six compared with an earlier detection in a previous optical high state.     

High-resolution radio observations of Seyfert galaxies in the extended 12-μm sample – I. The observations

We present 8.4-GHz VLA A-configuration observations of 87 sources from the mid-infrared-selected AGN sample of Rush et al. These 0.25-arcsec-resolution observations allow elongated radio structures tens of pc in size to be resolved, and enable radio components smaller than 3.5 arcsec to be isolated from diffuse galactic disc emission. When combined with previous data, matched radio observations covering 90 per cent of the sample have been collected, and these represent the largest subarcsecond–resolution radio imaging survey of a homogeneously selected sample of Seyfert galaxies to date.
We use our observations to identify five radio-loud AGN in the sample. The nature of the radio emission from Seyfert nuclei will be discussed in subsequent papers.