The%20Millimetre-Wave%20Astronomy%20White%20Paper

1
The Millimetre-Wave Astronomy White Paper

• Michael Burton
• UNSW

2
What place for millimetre-wave in Australian
radio astronomy for the next decade?

• ALMA 2012?
• SKA 2020?

Maintaining the vitality of the astronomical
community till SKA
3
Australian MM-Wave Facilities

• ATCA, Mopra, Parkes, Tidbinbilla
• 3 7 12 mm (100 50 20 GHz)
• Interferometry OTF mapping
• Broad band Spectroscopy

4
Whats coming in Australia

• 8 GHz correlator for Mopra
• 2 GHz correlator for ATCA
• 7 mm system for ATCA Mopra
• 115 GHz extension for ATCA?

5
APEX 12m
ASTE 12m
NANTEN2 4m
HEAT 0.5m
SPT 10m
AST/RO 1.7m
6
Whats coming now in the South

• Atacama Plateau of Chile
• 4m NANTEN2
• 12m APEX
• 12m ASTE
• Plus, of course, ALMA
• Antarctica
• 1.7m AST/RO
• 10m South Pole Telescope
• 0.5m HEAT (THz frequencies)

7
What role for Australias facilities?

• Theyre here now!
• only southern interferometer for gt 5 years
• 712mm unchallenged, 3mm largely so.
• Broad Band, Fast Mapping.
• Complementarity to the Chilean / Antarctic
  facilities?

8
Science Drivers Formation Processes

• When Planets are young
• When Stars are young
• When Galaxies were young
• When the Universe was young

9
MM Windows
Massive Protostar
12 mm ATCA
7 mm ATCA
3 mm ATCA
z6 Starburst / AGN
2 mm Oz!
sub-mm ALMA
MIR 200300µm Dome C
far-IR Dome A
10
Science Drivers I

• Evolution of circumstellar disks
• Search for biogenic molecules
• Evolutionary sequence for MSF
• Turbulence-regulated star formation?
• Star formation in other environments
• The LMC SMC

11
Science Drivers II

• Extragalactic star formation
• calibrating the Schmidt Law and the radio-FIR
  relation
• Star formation history of the Universe
• red-shifted CO as a proxy for SFR
• Unique objects
• SN1987A
• The Central Molecular Zone

12
Science Drivers III

• Other ideas welcome!

13
Include possible future enhancements

• 115 GHz extension to ATCA
• Adjustable secondaries
• Real time phase monitoring
• Million channel spectrometers
• Focal Plane Arrays
• or re-shape dish for a multi-beam?
• Need to have science drivers!

14
Science Drivers vs. Capabilities
15
MM White Paper the process

• First Draft for MM Science ATUC meetings
  (30/11/05 01/12/05)
• Open invitation for contributions
• Second draft for Future directions for southern
  hemisphere mm-wave astronomy meeting 30-31/03/06
• Place in the international context, esp. Chilean
  facilities
• Funding sources?
• MM White Paper delivered to ATUC for June 06
  meeting

16
Please contribute!

• mmscience.atnf.csiro.au