Project title: A single-baseline radio interferometer in a new age of transient astrophysics/Vienas bāzeslīnijas radio interferometrs mūsdienu tranzientu astrofizikā
Project No.: lzp-2022/1-0083
Project acronym: IVARS
Project logo:
Funder: Latvian Science Council, Fundamental and Applied Research Projects
Project submitter: Ventspils University of Applied Sciences (VUAS)
Project scientific supervisor: VUAS leading guest researcher Ross Alexander Burns
Duration: 01.01.2023. – 31.12.2025. (36 months, 3 reference periods)
Brief Qualitative Description and Aim of the Project:
The use of single-baseline interferometers has been known in astronomy since the 1940s. However demand for the observing technique was quickly overtaken by interferometers comprising large numbers of radio telescopes. As demand for aperture synthesis arrays rose the time shared to each observing program became more limited. Today the field of radio astronomy has seen a resurgence in 'transient' science, where more and more astronomical phenomena are found to be active at months, weeks and even intra-day timescales. For example high-mass stars form in short, intense bursts of accretion that exhibit active variations on day timescales. The recent focus on transient science has renewed the demand for facilities capable of high-cadence monitoring of the brightness variations of radio emission, in which the now uncommon single-baseline radio interferometer is well suited. The project goal is development of the Irbene single-baseline interferometer (ISBI), capable of uncovering the variations of radio emission associated with high-mass star forming regions. The developed ISBI will be used for monitoring the radio continuum emission and maser emission from high-mass protostars. This will foster a distinction between currently untested and competing theoretical scenarios proposed to explain the enigmatic variability recently found to be associated with the formation of high-mass stars.
Project tasks:
Project results:
The expected results will address unsolved questions about the formation process of high-mass stars. Additionally we aim to deepen understanding of the jet launching process which is thought to follow the bursts of growth by which high-mass stars gain mass. The time-domain investigation of these two processes will require high-cadence observations with an interferometric system. Such a combination of flexibility and functionality is not easily achieved by radio astronomical facilities in modern times. This opportunity gives the Irbene interferometer a unique advantage in the investigation of short-duration variable astrophysical processes.
Scientific Results:
Impact to society:
Our project will deliver:
Project funding: 300 000.00 EUR
Contacts:
Project scientific head – PhD Ross Alexander Burns, rossburns88@googlemail.com
Project leading researcher - PhD Ivars Šmelds, ivars.smelds@venta.lv
Project coordinator for administrative matters - Ieva Kozlova, ieva.kozlova@venta.lv
Project logo designed by Katrīna Doniņa