Journal ArticleDOI

# Gigabit Digital Filter Bank: Digital Backend Subsystem in the VERA Data-Acquisition System

Satoru Iguchi
25 Feb 2005-Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan (Oxford University Press)-Vol. 57, Iss: 1, pp 259-271

AbstractThe VERA terminal is a new data-acquisition system developed for the VERA project, which is a project to construct a new Japanese VLBI array dedicated to make a 3-D map of our Milky Way Galaxy in terms of highprecision astrometry. New technology, a gigabit digital filter, was introduced in the development. The importance and advantages of a digital filter for radio astronomy have been studied as follows: (1) the digital filter can realize a variety of observation modes and maintain compatibility with different data-acquisition systems (Kiuchi et al. 1997 and Iguchi et al. 2000a), (2) the folding noise occurring in the sampling process can be reduced by combination with a higher-order sampling technique (Iguchi, Kawaguchi 2002), (3) and an ideal sharp cut-off bandedge and a flat amplitude/phase responses are approached by using a large number of taps available to use LSI of a large number of logic cells (Iguchi et al. 2000a). We developed the custom Finite Impulse Response filter chips and manufactured the Gigabit Digital Filter Banks (GDFBs) as a digital backend subsystem in the VERA terminal. In this paper, the design and development of the GDFB are presented in detail, and the performances and demonstrations of the developed GDFB are shown.

Topics: Digital filter (57%), Gigabit (55%), Finite impulse response (52%)

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##### Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
Abstract: We report on the results of multiepoch very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) observations with VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry) of the 22 GHz H2O masers associated with the young stellar object SVS 13 in the NGC 1333 region. We carried out phase-referencing VLBI astrometry, and measured the annual parallax of the maser features in SVS 13 of 4.25 ˙ 0.32 mas, corresponding to a distance of 235 ˙ 18 pc from the Sun. Our result is consistent with a photometric distance of 220 pc, previously reported. Even though the maser features were detectable only for 6 months, the present result provides the distance to NGC 1333 with much higher accuracy than photometric methods. The absolute positions and proper motions have been derived, revealing that the H2O masers with LSR (local standard of rest) velocities of 7–8 km s � 1 are most likely associated with VLA 4A, which is a radio counterpart of SVS 13. It is currently difficult to attribute the observed proper motions of the maser features to either the jet or the rotating circumstellar disk associated with VLA 4A, which should be investigated through future high-resolution astrometric observations of VLA 4A and other radio sources in NGC 1333.

329 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Abstract: We present the initial results of multiepoch VLBI observations of 22 GHz H2O masers in the Orion KL region with VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry). With the VERA dual-beam receiving system, we carried out phase-referencing VLBI astrometry, and successfully detected the annual parallax of Orion KL to be 2.29 ˙ 0.10 mas, corresponding to a distance of 437 ˙ 19 pc from the Sun. The distance to Orion KL was determined for the first time with the trigonometric parallax method in these observations. Although this value is consistent with that previously reported, 480 ˙ 80 pc, which was estimated from a statistical parallax method using the proper motions and radial velocities of the H2O maser features, our new results provide a much more accurate value with an uncertainty of only 4%. In addition to the annual parallax, we detected an absolute proper motion of the maser feature, suggesting an outflow motion powered by the radio source I along with the systematic motion of source I itself.

235 citations

### Cites methods from "Gigabit Digital Filter Bank: Digita..."

• ...Left-handed circular polarization was received and sampled with 2-bit quantization, and filtered using the VERA digital filter unit (Iguchi et al. 2005)....

[...]

Journal ArticleDOI
Abstract: We have performed high-precision astrometry of H2O maser sources in the Galactic star-forming region Sharpless 269 (S269) with VERA. We successfully detected a trigonometric parallax of 189 ˙ 8� as, corresponding to a source distance of 5:28 +0:24 � 0:22 kpc. This is the smallest parallax ever measured, and the first one detected beyond 5 kpc. The source distance as well as the proper motions were used to constrain the outer rotation curve of the Galaxy, demonstrating that the difference of rotation velocities at the Sun and at S269 (which is 13.1 kpc away from the Galaxy’s center) is less than 3%. This gives the strongest constraint on the flatness of the outer rotation curve, and provides a direct confirmation of the existence of a large amount of dark matter in the Galaxy’s outer disk.

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### Cites methods from "Gigabit Digital Filter Bank: Digita..."

• ...The signals from the two sources are filtered with VERA Digital Filter (Iguchi et al. 2005) to obtain 1 IF (Intermediate Frequency) channel of 16 MHz for the S269 maser line and 15 IF channels of 16 MHz (240 MHz in total) for J0613+1306....

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Journal ArticleDOI

Abstract: We have carried out multi-epoch VLBI observations with VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry) of 22 GHz H2O masers associated with a Class 0 protostar, L 1448 C, in the Perseus molecular cloud. The maser features trace the base of a collimated bipolar jet driven by one of the infrared counter parts of L 1448 C, named as L 1448 C(N) or L 1448-mm A. We detected possible evidence for apparent acceleration and precession of the jet according to the three-dimensional velocity structure. Based on phase-referencing VLBI astrometry, we successfully detected an annual parallax of the H2O maser in L 1448 C to be 4.31 0.33 milliarcseconds (mas), which corresponds to a distance of 232 18 pc from the Sun. The present result is in good agreement with that of another H2O maser source, NGC 1333 SVS 13, in the Perseus molecular cloud, 235 pc. It is also consistent with the photometric distance, 220 pc. Thus, the distance to the western part of the Perseus molecular cloud complex would be constrained to be about 235 pc, rather than a larger value, 300 pc, previously reported.

129 citations

### Cites methods from "Gigabit Digital Filter Bank: Digita..."

• ...Left-handed circular polarization was received and sampled with 2-bit quantization and filtered using the VERA digital filter unit (Iguchi et al. 2005)....

[...]

Journal ArticleDOI
Tomoya Hirota
Abstract: We have carried out multi-epoch VLBI observations with VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry) of the 22~GHz H$_{2}$O masers associated with a Class 0 protostar L1448C in the Perseus molecular cloud. The maser features trace the base of collimated bipolar jet driven by one of the infrared counter parts of L1448C named as L1448C(N) or L1448-mm A. We detected possible evidences for apparent acceleration and precession of the jet according to the three-dimensional velocity structure. Based on the phase-referencing VLBI astrometry, we have successfully detected an annual parallax of the H$_{2}$O maser in L1448C to be 4.31$\pm$0.33~milliarcseconds (mas) which corresponds to a distance of 232$\pm$18~pc from the Sun. The present result is in good agreement with that of another H$_{2}$O maser source NGC~1333 SVS13A in the Perseus molecular cloud, 235~pc. It is also consistent with the photometric distance, 220~pc. Thus, the distance to the western part of the Perseus molecular cloud complex would be constrained to be about 235~pc rather than the larger value, 300~pc, previously reported.

118 citations

##### References
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Abstract: Preface to the Second Edition Preface to the First Edition Introduction and Historical Review Introductory Theory of Interferometry and Synthesis Imaging Analysis of the Interferometer Response Geometric Relationships and Polarimetry Antennas and Arrays Response of the Receiving System Design of the Analog Receiving System Digital Signal Processing Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry Calibration and Fourier Transformation of Visibility Data Deconvolution, Adaptive Calibration, and Applications Interferometer Techniques for Astrometry and Geodesy Propagation Effects Van Cittert-Zernike Theorem, Spatial Coherence, and Scattering Radio Interference Related Techniques Principal Symbols Author Index Subject Index

1,879 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
23 May 2003-Science
TL;DR: Using the very-long-baseline interferometer, it is found that the unresolved radio core of 3C 66B shows well-defined elliptical motions with a period of 1.05 ± 0.03 years, which provides a direct detection of a supermassive black hole binary.
Abstract: Supermassive black hole binaries may exist in the centers of active galactic nuclei such as quasars and radio galaxies, and mergers between galaxies may result in the formation of supermassive binaries during the course of galactic evolution. Using the very-long-baseline interferometer, we imaged the radio galaxy 3C 66B at radio frequencies and found that the unresolved radio core of 3C 66B shows well-defined elliptical motions with a period of 1.05 ± 0.03 years, which provides a direct detection of a supermassive black hole binary.

143 citations

• ...This IF configuration is available and effective in the high-precision astrometric observation toward investigating the motion and position of radio sources; e.g. the detection of the Kepler orbital motion of some emission component close to black holes (Sudou et al. 2003)....

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Proceedings ArticleDOI
Kazuo Sorai
Abstract: New digital spectrometers for the 25-BEam Array Receiver System (BEARS) of the Nobeyama 45-m telescope are described. A commercial digital oscilloscope is used as a digitizer. The digitizer samples analogue data with 2 bits (4 levels). Data of 512 MHz bandwidth are processed for four beams at the same time. The data-formatting unit demultiplexes 2 bits 8 data in parallel to 32 parallels and sends outputs to LSIs. General purpose LSIs for autocorrelation read the digital data with a clock rate of 32 MHz. Thirty-two LSIs of 32 lags connected in cascades calculate 1024-lag autocorrelation, and output a 1024-channel power spectrum of 512 MHz bandwidth. The bandwidth of 32 MHz is achieved by picking up the data in a rate of 1/16 in the front part of the autocorrelator module. The total performances have been demonstrated by long-term integration of noise signals from receivers and observations of the Galactic star-forming region W51 in CO line.

115 citations

Proceedings ArticleDOI

103 citations

### "Gigabit Digital Filter Bank: Digita..." refers methods in this paper

• ...The ADCs were fabricated by improving a digital oscilloscope made by Sony/Tektronix Company (as developed in the BEARS project: Sunada et al. 2000)....

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Journal ArticleDOI
Abstract: We present the results of the first dual-beam observations with VERA (VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry). The observations of a pair of H2O maser sources, W 49N and OH 43.8−0.1, were carried out on 2002 May 29 and July 23, and fringes of the H2O maser lines at 22GHz were successfully detected. While the residual fringe phases of both sources showed rapid variations over 360 ◦ due to the atmospheric fluctuation, the differential phase between the two sources remained constant for 1 hour with an r.m.s. of 8 ◦ , demonstrating that the atmospheric phase fluctuation was effectively removed by dual-beam phase referencing. An analysis based on the Allan standard deviation reveals that the differential phase is mostly dominated by white phase noise, and the coherence function calculated from the differential phase shows that after phase referencing the fringe visibility can be integrated for an arbitrarily long time. These results demonstrate VERA’s high capability of phase referencing, indicating that it is a promising tool for phase-referencing VLBI astrometry at 10 µas-level accuracy.

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