Rotation Measure Synthesis of Galactic Polarized Emission with the DRAO 26-m Telescope

TL;DR

This paper describes the development of a wideband polarimetric receiver and data acquisition system for the DRAO 26-m Telescope, enabling the first application of Rotation Measure Synthesis to diffuse Galactic emission with a single antenna, revealing high rotation measure values.

Contribution

It introduces a novel digital FPGA spectrometer system for wideband radio polarimetry and demonstrates its use in applying Rotation Measure Synthesis to Galactic emission.

Findings

First application of Rotation Measure Synthesis to diffuse Galactic emission with a single antenna.

Detected rotation measures up to approximately 100 rad/m^2, higher than previous measurements.

Developed a wideband receiver system covering 1277-1762 MHz for Galactic polarization surveys.

Abstract

Radio polarimetry at decimetre wavelengths is the principal source of information on the Galactic magnetic field. The diffuse polarized emission is strongly influenced by Faraday rotation in the magneto-ionic medium and rotation measure is the prime quantity of interest, implying that all Stokes parameters must be measured over wide frequency bands with many frequency channels. The DRAO 26-m Telescope has been equipped with a wideband feed, a polarization transducer to deliver both hands of circular polarization, and a receiver, all operating from 1277 to 1762 MHz. Half-power beamwidth is between 40 and 30 arcminutes. A digital FPGA spectrometer, based on commercially available components, produces all Stokes parameters in 2048 frequency channels over a 485-MHz bandwidth. Signals are digitized to 8 bits and a Fast Fourier Transform is applied to each data stream. Stokes parameters are then generated in each frequency channel. This instrument is in use at DRAO for a Northern sky polarization survey. Observations consist of scans up and down the Meridian at a drive rate of 0.9 degree per minute to give complete coverage of the sky between declinations -30 degree and 90 degree. This paper presents a complete description of the receiver and data acquisition system. Only a small fraction of the frequency band of operation is allocated for radio astronomy, and about 20 percent of the data are lost to interference. The first 8 percent of data from the survey are used for a proof-of-concept study, which has led to the first application of Rotation Measure Synthesis to the diffuse Galactic emission obtained with a single-antenna telescope. We find rotation measure values for the diffuse emission as high as approximately 100 rad per square metre, much higher than recorded in earlier work.