AMiBA: System performance

Kai Yang Lin*, Chao Te Li, Paul T.P. Ho, Chih Wei Locutus Huang, Yu Wei Liao, Guo Chin Liu, Patrick M. Koch, Sandor M. Molnar, Hiroaki Nishioka, Keiichi Umetsu, Fu Cheng Wang, Jiun Huei Proty Wu, Michael Kestevan, Mark Birkinshaw, Pablo Altamirano, Chia Hao Chang, Shu Hao Chang, Su Wei Chang, Ming Tang Chen, Pierre Martin-CocherChih Chiang Han, Yau De Huang, Yuh Jing Hwang, Fabiola Ibãez-Roman, Homin Jiang, Derek Y. Kubo, Peter Oshiro, Philippe Raffin, Tashun Wei, Warwick Wilson, Ke Jung Chen, Tzihong Chiueh

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticle (Academic Journal)peer-review

16 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The Y.T. Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy started scientific operation in early 2007. This work describes the optimization of the system performance for the measurements of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect for six massive galaxy clusters at redshifts 0.09-0.32. We achieved a point-source sensitivity of 63 ± 7 mJy with the seven 0.6 m dishes in 1 hr of on-source integration in two-patch differencing observations. We measured and compensated for the delays between the antennas of our platform-mounted interferometer. Beam switching was used to cancel instrumental instabilities and ground pick up. Total power and phase stability were good on timescales of hours, and the system was shown to integrate down on equivalent timescales of 300 hr per baseline/correlation, or about 10 hr for the entire array. While the broadband correlator leads to good sensitivity, the small number of lags in the correlator resulted in poorly measured bandpass response. We corrected for this by using external calibrators (Jupiter and Saturn). Using Jupiter as the flux standard, we measured the disk brightness temperature of Saturn to be 149 +5 -12 K.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1629-1636
Number of pages8
JournalAstrophysical Journal
Volume694
Issue number2
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2009

Keywords

  • Cosmic microwave background
  • Galaxies: clusters: general
  • Instrumentation: interferometers

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'AMiBA: System performance'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this