Folkert Huizinga

Bio: Folkert Huizinga is an academic researcher from University of Amsterdam. The author has contributed to research in topics: LOFAR & Radio telescope. The author has an hindex of 6, co-authored 11 publications receiving 112 citations.

The AARTFAAC All-Sky Monitor: System Design and Implementation

Abstract: The Amsterdam–ASTRON Radio Transients Facility and Analysis Center (AARTFAAC) all-sky monitor is a sensitive, real-time transient detector based on the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR). It generates images of the low frequency radio sky with spatial resolution of tens of arcmin, MHz bandwidths, and a time cadence of a few seconds, while simultaneously but independently observing with LOFAR. The image timeseries is then monitored for short and bright radio transients. On detection of a transient, a low latency trigger will be generated for LOFAR, which can interrupt its schedule to carry out follow-up observations of the trigger location at high sensitivity and resolutions. In this paper, we describe our heterogeneous, hierarchical design to manage the 259Gbps raw data rate and large scale computing to produce real-time images with minimum latency. We discuss the implementation of the instrumentation, its performance and scalability.

Real-time calibration of the AARTFAAC array for transient detection

Abstract: The search for transient phenomena at low radio frequencies is now coming of age with the development of radio sky monitors with a large field of view, which are made feasible by new developments in calibration algorithms and computing. However, accurate calibration of such arrays is challenging, especially within the latency requirements of near real-time transient monitors, and is the main cause of limiting their sensitivities. This paper describes a strategy for real-time, wide-field direction-dependent calibration of the Amsterdam-ASTRON Radio Transients Facility and Analysis Center (AARTFAAC) array, which is a sensitive, continuously available all-sky monitor based on the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR). The monitor operates in a zenith pointing, snapshot imaging mode for image plane detection of bright radio transients. We show that a tracking calibration approach with solution propagation satisfies our latency, computing, and calibration accuracy constraints. We characterize the instrument and verify the calibration strategy under a variety of observing conditions. This brings out several phenomena, which can bias the calibration. The real-time nature of the application further imposes strict latency and computational constraints. We find that although ionosphere-induced phase errors present a major impediment to accurate calibration, these can be corrected in the direction of the brightest few sources to significantly improve image quality. Our real-time calibration pipeline implementation processes a single spectral channel of a snapshot observation in ~0.2 s on test hardware, which is well within its latency budget. Autonomously calibrating and imaging one second snapshots, our approach leads to a typical image noise of ~10 Jy for a ~90 kHz channel, reaching dynamic ranges of ~2000:1. We also show that difference imaging allows thermal-noise limited transient detection, despite the instrument being confusion-noise limited.

The AARTFAAC All Sky Monitor: System Design and Implementation

Abstract: The Amsterdam-ASTRON Radio Transients Facility And Analysis Center (AARTFAAC) all sky monitor is a sensitive, real time transient detector based on the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR). It generates images of the low frequency radio sky with spatial resolution of 10s of arcmin, MHz bandwidths, and a time cadence of a few seconds, while simultaneously but independently observing with LOFAR. The image timeseries is then monitored for short and bright radio transients. On detection of a transient, a low latency trigger will be generated for LOFAR, which can interrupt its schedule to carry out follow-up observations of the trigger location at high sensitivity and resolutions. In this paper, we describe our heterogeneous, hierarchical design to manage the 240 Gbps raw data rate, and large scale computing to produce real-time images with minimum latency. We discuss the implementation of the instrumentation, its performance, and scalability.

LOFAR Observations of Swift J1644+57 and Implications for Short-Duration Transients

Abstract: Aims. We have analyzed low frequency radio data of tidal disruption event (TDE) Swift J1644+57 to search for a counterpart. We consider how brief transient signals (on the order of seconds or minutes) originating from this location would appear in our data. We also consider how automatic radio frequency interference (RFI) flagging at radio telescope observatories might a ffect these and other transient observations in the future, particularly with br ief transients of a few seconds duration. Methods. We observed the field in the low-frequency regime at 149 MHz wi th data obtained over several months with the Low Frequency Array (LOFAR). We also present simulations where a brief transient is injected into the data in order to see how it would appear in our measurement sets, and how it would be affected by RFI flagging. Finally, both based on simulation work and the weighted average of the observed background over the course of the individual observations, we present the possibility of brief radio transients in the data. Results. Our observations of Swift J1644+57 yielded no detection of the source and a peak flux density at this position of 24.7± 8.9 mJy. Our upper limit on the transient rate of the snapshot surface density in this field at sensitivities i 0.5 Jy is � < 2.2× 10 −2 deg −2 . We also conclude that we did not observe any brief transient signals originating specifically from the Swift J1644 +57 source itself, and searches for such transients are severely limited by aut omatic RFI flagging algorithms which flag transients of less t han 2 minutes duration. As such, careful consideration of RFI flagging tec hniques must occur when searching for transient signals.

Long-term study of extreme giant pulses from PSR B0950+08 with AARTFAAC

Abstract: We report on the detection of extreme giant pulses (GPs) from one of the oldest known pulsars, the highly variable PSR B0950+08, with the Amsterdam-ASTRON Radio Transient Facility And Analysis Centre (AARTFAAC), a parallel transient detection instrument operating as a subsystem of the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR). During processing of our Northern Hemisphere survey for low-frequency radio transients, a sample of 275 pulses with fluences ranging from 42 to 177 kJy ms were detected in one-second snapshot images. The brightest pulses are an order of magnitude brighter than those previously reported at 42 and 74 MHz, on par with the levels observed in a previous long-term study at 103 MHz. Both their rate and fluence distribution differ between and within the various studies done to date. The GP rate is highly variable, from 0 to 30 per hour, with only two 3-h observations accounting for nearly half of the pulses detected in the 96 h surveyed. It does not vary significantly within a few-hour observation, but can vary strongly one from day to the next. The spectra appear strongly and variably structured, with emission sometimes confined to a single 195.3 kHz subband, and the pulse spectra changing on a time-scale of order 10 min.

Improved upper limits on the 21 cm signal power spectrum of neutral hydrogen at z ≈ 9.1 from LOFAR

Abstract: A new upper limit on the 21 cm signal power spectrum at a redshift of z approximate to 9.1 is presented, based on 141 h of data obtained with the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR). The analysis includes significant improvements in spectrally smooth gain-calibration, Gaussian Process Regression (GPR) foreground mitigation and optimally weighted power spectrum inference. Previously seen 'excess power' due to spectral structure in the gain solutions has markedly reduced but some excess power still remains with a spectral correlation distinct from thermal noise. This excess has a spectral coherence scale of 0.25-0.45 MHz and is partially correlated between nights, especially in the foreground wedge region. The correlation is stronger between nights covering similar local sidereal times. A best 2-sigma upper limit of Delta(2)(21) <(73)(2) mK(2) at k = 0.075 h cMpc(-1) is found, an improvement by a factor approximate to 8 in power compared to the previously reported upper limit. The remaining excess power could be due to residual foreground emission from sources or diffuse emission far away from the phase centre, polarization leakage, chromatic calibration errors, ionosphere, or low-level radiofrequency interference. We discuss future improvements to the signal processing chain that can further reduce or even eliminate these causes of excess power.

Limits on Fast Radio Bursts and other transient sources at 182 MHz using the Murchison Widefield Array

Abstract: We present a survey for transient and variable sources, on time-scales from 28 s to ~1 yr, using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) at 182 MHz. Down to a detection threshold of 0.285 Jy, no transient candidates were identified, making this the most constraining low-frequency survey to date and placing a limit on the surface density of transients of <4.1 × 10-7 deg-2 for the shortest time-scale considered. At these frequencies, emission from Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) is expected to be detectable in the shortest time-scale images without any corrections for interstellar or intergalactic dispersion. At an FRB limiting flux density of 7980 Jy, we find a rate of <82 FRBs per sky per day for dispersion measures <700 pc cm-3. Assuming a cosmological population of standard candles, our rate limits are consistent with the FRB rates obtained by Thornton et al. if they have a flat spectral slope. Finally, we conduct an initial variability survey of sources in the field with flux densities ≥ 0.5 Jy and identify no sources with significant variability in their light curves. However, we note that substantial further work is required to fully characterize both the short-term and low-level variability within this field.

Radio Properties of Tidal Disruption Events

Abstract: Radio observations of tidal disruption events (TDEs) probe material ejected by the disruption of stars by supermassive black holes (SMBHs), uniquely tracing the formation and evolution of jets and outflows, revealing details of the disruption hydrodynamics, and illuminating the environments around previously-dormant SMBHs. To date, observations reveal a surprisingly diverse population. A small fraction of TDEs (at most a few percent) have been observed to produce radio-luminous mildly relativistic jets. The remainder of the population are radio quiet, producing less luminous jets, non-relativistic outflows or, possibly, no radio emission at all. Here, we review the radio observations that have been made of TDEs to date and discuss possible explanations for their properties, focusing on detected sources and, in particular, on the two best-studied events: Sw J1644+57 and ASASSN-14li. We also discuss what we have learned about the host galaxies of TDEs from radio observations and review constraints on the rates of bright and faint radio outflows in TDEs. Upcoming X-ray, optical, near-IR, and radio surveys will greatly expand the sample of TDEs, and technological advances open the exciting possibility of discovering a sample of TDEs in the radio band unbiased by host galaxy extinction.

LOFAR MSSS: detection of a low-frequency radio transient in 400 h of monitoring of the North Celestial Pole

Abstract: We present the results of a four-month campaign searching for low-frequency radio transients near the North Celestial Pole with the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR), as part of the Multifrequency Snapshot Sky Survey (MSSS). The data were recorded between 2011 December and 2012 April and comprised 2149 11-minute snapshots, each covering 175 deg^2. We have found one convincing candidate astrophysical transient, with a duration of a few minutes and a flux density at 60 MHz of 15-25 Jy. The transient does not repeat and has no obvious optical or high-energy counterpart, as a result of which its nature is unclear. The detection of this event implies a transient rate at 60 MHz of 3.9 (+14.7, -3.7) x 10^-4 day^-1 deg^-2, and a transient surface density of 1.5 x 10^-5 deg^-2, at a 7.9-Jy limiting flux density and ~10-minute time-scale. The campaign data were also searched for transients at a range of other time-scales, from 0.5 to 297 min, which allowed us to place a range of limits on transient rates at 60 MHz as a function of observation duration.

Capturing the electromagnetic counterparts of binary neutron star mergers through low-latency gravitational wave triggers

Abstract: We investigate the prospects for joint low-latency gravitational wave (GW) detection and prompt electromagnetic (EM) follow-up observations of coalescing binary neutron stars (BNSs). For BNS mergers associated with short duration gamma-ray bursts (SGRBs), we for the first time evaluate the feasibility of rapid EM follow-ups to capture the prompt emission, early engine activity or reveal any potential by-products such as magnetars or fast radio bursts. To achieve our goal, we first simulate a population of coalescing BNSs using realistic distributions of source parameters and estimate the detectability and localisation efficiency at different times before merger. We then use a selection of facilities with GW follow-up agreements in place, from low-frequency radio to high energy γ-ray to assess the prospects of prompt follow-up. We quantify our assessment using observational SGRB flux data extrapolated to be within the horizon distances of the advanced GW interferometric detectors LIGO and Virgo and to the prompt phase immediately following the binary merger. Our results illustrate that while challenging, breakthrough multi-messenger science is possible with EM followup facilities with fast responses and wide fields-of-view. We demonstrate that the opportunity to catch the prompt stage (< 5s) of SGRBs, can be enhanced by speeding up the detection pipelines of both GW observatories and EM follow-up facilities. We further show that the addition of an Australian instrument to the optimal detector network could possibly improve the angular resolution by a factor of two and thereby contribute significantly to GW-EM multi-messenger astronomy.