Radio Astronomy with Multiband Receivers and Frequency Phase Transfer: Scientific Perspectives
Abstract
The technique of frequency phase transfer (FPT), enabled by multiband receivers with shared optical path (SOP), is set to become a true backbone of VLBI operations at frequencies above 22 GHz. The FPT has been successfully implemented at the Korean VLBI Network (KVN), while gaining ever more prominent attention worldwide. Over the next few years, FPT VLBI at 22/43/86 GHz will become feasible at more than ten telescopes in Eurasia and Australia. This development would bring order of magnitude improvements of sensitivity and dynamic range of VLBI imaging at 86 GHz and deliver astrometric measurements with an accuracy of one microsecond of arc. The resulting exceptional discovery potential would strongly impact a number of scientific fields ranging from fundamental cosmology and black hole physics to stellar astrophysics and studies of transient phenomena. It is now the right moment for establishing a Science Working Group and a Technical Working Group for FPT VLBI in order to actively focus and coordinate the relevant activities at all stakeholder institutes and ultimately to realize the first global FPT VLBI instrument operating at 22/43/86 GHz.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2306.04516,
title = {Radio Astronomy with Multiband Receivers and Frequency Phase Transfer: Scientific Perspectives},
author = {Richard Dodson and Cristina García-Miró and Marcello Giroletti and Taehyun Jung and Michael Lindqvist and Andrei Lobanov and Maria Rioja and Eduardo Ros and Tuomas Savolainen and Bong Won Sohn and Anton Zensus and Guang-Yao Zhao},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2306.04516},
year = {2023}
}
Comments
13 pages; report from a workshop held on 12-14 October 2022 at the Max-Planck-Institut f\"ur Radioastronomie, Bonn, Germany