Science with the Murchison Widefield Array
Abstract
Significant new opportunities for astrophysics and cosmology have been identified at low radio frequencies. The Murchison Widefield Array is the first telescope in the Southern Hemisphere designed specifically to explore the low-frequency astronomical sky between 80 and 300 MHz with arcminute angular resolution and high survey efficiency. The telescope will enable new advances along four key science themes, including searching for redshifted 21 cm emission from the epoch of reionisation in the early Universe; Galactic and extragalactic all-sky southern hemisphere surveys; time-domain astrophysics; and solar, heliospheric, and ionospheric science and space weather. The Murchison Widefield Array is located in Western Australia at the site of the planned Square Kilometre Array (SKA) low-band telescope and is the only low-frequency SKA precursor facility. In this paper, we review the performance properties of the Murchison Widefield Array and describe its primary scientific objectives.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1212.5151,
title = {Science with the Murchison Widefield Array},
author = {Judd D. Bowman and Iver Cairns and David L. Kaplan and Tara Murphy and Divya Oberoi and Lister Staveley-Smith and Wayne Arcus and David G. Barnes and Gianni Bernardi and Frank H. Briggs and Shea Brown and John D. Bunton and Adam J. Burgasser and Roger J. Cappallo and Shami Chatterjee and Brian E. Corey and Anthea Coster and Avinash Deshpande and Ludi deSouza and David Emrich and Philip Erickson and Robert F. Goeke and B. M. Gaensler and Lincoln J. Greenhill and Lisa Harvey-Smith and Bryna J. Hazelton and David Herne and Jacqueline N. Hewitt and Melanie Johnston-Hollitt and Justin C. Kasper and Barton B. Kincaid and Ronald Koenig and Eric Kratzenberg and Colin J. Lonsdale and Mervyn J. Lynch and Lynn D. Matthews and S. Russell McWhirter and Daniel A. Mitchell and Miguel F. Morales and Edward H. Morgan and Stephen M. Ord and Joseph Pathikulangara and Prabu Thiagaraj and Ronald A. Remillard and Timothy Robishaw and Alan E. E. Rogers and Anish A. Roshi and Joseph E. Salah and Robert J. Sault and N. Udaya Shankar and K. S. Srivani and Jamie B. Stevens and Ravi Subrahmanyan and Steven J. Tingay and Randall B. Wayth and Mark Waterson and Rachel L. Webster and Alan R. Whitney and Andrew J. Williams and Christopher L. Williams and J. Stuart B. Wyithe},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1212.5151},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Updated with revisions. 32 pages including figures and references. Submitted to PASA