| 21. |
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| 22. |
- Shimwell, T. W., et al.
(författare)
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A plethora of diffuse steep spectrum radio sources in Abell 2034 revealed by LOFAR
- 2016
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Ingår i: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 459:1, s. 277-290
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- With Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) observations, we have discovered a diverse assembly of steep spectrum emission that is apparently associated with the intracluster medium (ICM) of the merging galaxy cluster Abell 2034. Such a rich variety of complex emission associated with the ICM has been observed in few other clusters. This not only indicates that Abell 2034 is a more interesting and complex system than previously thought but it also demonstrates the importance of sensitive and high-resolution, low-frequency observations. These observations can reveal emission from relativistic particles which have been accelerated to sufficient energy to produce observable emission or have had their high energy maintained by mechanisms in the ICM. The most prominent feature in our maps is a bright bulb of emission connected to two steep spectrum filamentary structures, the longest of which extends perpendicular to the merger axis for 0.5 Mpc across the south of the cluster. The origin of these objects is unclear, with no shock detected in the X-ray images and no obvious connection with cluster galaxies or AGNs. We also find that the X-ray bright region of the cluster coincides with a giant radio halo with an irregular morphology and a very steep spectrum. In addition, the cluster hosts up to three possible radio relics, which are misaligned with the cluster X-ray emission. Finally, we have identified multiple regions of emission with a very steep spectral index that seem to be associated with either tailed radio galaxies or a shock.
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| 23. |
- Shimwell, T. W., et al.
(författare)
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The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey: I. Survey description and preliminary data release
- 2017
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 598, s. Art no A104-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) is a deep 120-168 MHz imaging survey that will eventually cover the entire northern sky. Each of the 3170 pointings will be observed for 8 h, which, at most declinations, is sufficient to produce ~5? resolution images with a sensitivity of ~100 ?Jy/beam and accomplish the main scientific aims of the survey, which are to explore the formation and evolution of massive black holes, galaxies, clusters of galaxies and large-scale structure. Owing to the compact core and long baselines of LOFAR, the images provide excellent sensitivity to both highly extended and compact emission. For legacy value, the data are archived at high spectral and time resolution to facilitate subarcsecond imaging and spectral line studies. In this paper we provide an overview of the LoTSS. We outline the survey strategy, the observational status, the current calibration techniques, a preliminary data release, and the anticipated scientific impact. The preliminary images that we have released were created using a fully automated but direction-independent calibration strategy and are significantly more sensitive than those produced by any existing large-Area low-frequency survey. In excess of 44 000 sources are detected in the images that have a resolution of 25?, typical noise levels of less than 0.5 mJy/beam, and cover an area of over 350 square degrees in the region of the HETDEX Spring Field (right ascension 10h45m00s to 15h30m00s and declination 45°00?00? to 57°00?00?).
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| 24. |
- Stappers, B. W., et al.
(författare)
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Observing pulsars and fast transients with LOFAR
- 2011
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 530
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Low frequency radio waves, while challenging to observe, are a rich source of information about pulsars. The LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) is a new radio interferometer operating in the lowest 4 octaves of the ionospheric "radio window": 10-240 MHz, that will greatly facilitate observing pulsars at low radio frequencies. Through the huge collecting area, long baselines, and flexible digital hardware, it is expected that LOFAR will revolutionize radio astronomy at the lowest frequencies visible from Earth. LOFAR is a next-generation radio telescope and a pathfinder to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA), in that it incorporates advanced multi-beaming techniques between thousands of individual elements. We discuss the motivation for low-frequency pulsar observations in general and the potential of LOFAR in addressing these science goals. We present LOFAR as it is designed to perform high-time-resolution observations of pulsars and other fast transients, and outline the various relevant observing modes and data reduction pipelines that are already or will soon be implemented to facilitate these observations. A number of results obtained from commissioning observations are presented to demonstrate the exciting potential of the telescope. This paper outlines the case for low frequency pulsar observations and is also intended to serve as a reference for upcoming pulsar/fast transient science papers with LOFAR.
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| 25. |
- van Weeren, R. J., et al.
(författare)
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Lofar low-band antenna observations of the 3C 295 and boötes fields: Source counts and ultra-steep spectrum sources
- 2014
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - 1538-4357 .- 0004-637X. ; 793:2, s. art. 82-
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present Low Frequency Array (LOFAR) Low Band observations of the Bootes and 3C 295 fields. Our images made at 34, 46, and 62 MHz reach noise levels of 12, 8, and 5 mJy beam(-1), making them the deepest images ever obtained in this frequency range. In total, we detect between 300 and 400 sources in each of these images, covering an area of 17-52 deg(2). From the observations, we derive Euclidean-normalized differential source counts. The 62 MHz source counts agree with previous GMRT 153 MHz and Very Large Array 74 MHz differential source counts, scaling with a spectral index of -0.7. We find that a spectral index scaling of -0.5 is required to match up the LOFAR 34 MHz source counts. This result is also in agreement with source counts from the 38 MHz 8C survey, indicating that the average spectral index of radio sources flattens toward lower frequencies. We also find evidence for spectral flattening using the individual flux measurements of sources between 34 and 1400 MHz and by calculating the spectral index averaged over the source population. To select ultra-steep spectrum (alpha
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| 26. |
- Williams, W. L., et al.
(författare)
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LOFAR 150-MHz observations of the Bootes field: catalogue and source counts
- 2016
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Ingår i: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 460:3, s. 2385-2412
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present the first wide area (19 deg(2)), deep (a parts per thousand 120-150 mu Jy beam(-1)), high-resolution (5.6 x 7.4 arcsec) LOFAR High Band Antenna image of the Bootes field made at 130-169 MHz. This image is at least an order of magnitude deeper and 3-5 times higher in angular resolution than previously achieved for this field at low frequencies. The observations and data reduction, which includes full direction-dependent calibration, are described here. We present a radio source catalogue containing 6 276 sources detected over an area of 19 deg(2), with a peak flux density threshold of 5 sigma. As the first thorough test of the facet calibration strategy, introduced by van Weeren et al., we investigate the flux and positional accuracy of the catalogue. We present differential source counts that reach an order of magnitude deeper in flux density than previously achieved at these low frequencies, and show flattening at 150-MHz flux densities below 10 mJy associated with the rise of the low flux density star-forming galaxies and radio-quiet AGN.
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| 27. |
- Asgekar, A., et al.
(författare)
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LOFAR detections of low-frequency radio recombination lines towards Cassiopeia A
- 2013
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 551
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Cassiopeia A was observed using the low-band antennas of the LOw Frequency ARray (LOFAR) with high spectral resolution. This allowed a search for radio recombination lines (RRLs) along the line-of-sight to this source. Five carbon alpha RRLs were detected in absorption between 40 and 50 MHz with a signal-to-noise ratio of >5 from two independent LOFAR data sets. The derived line velocities (v(LSR) similar to -50 km s(-1)) and integrated optical depths (similar to 13 s(-1)) of the RRLs in our spectra, extracted over the whole supernova remnant, are consistent within each LOFAR data set and with those previously reported. For the first time, we are able to extract spectra against the brightest hotspot of the remnant at frequencies below 330 MHz. These spectra show significantly higher (15-80 percent) integrated optical depths, indicating that there is small-scale angular structure of the order of similar to 1 pc in the absorbing gas distribution over the face of the remnant. We also place an upper limit of 3 x 10(-4) on the peak optical depths of hydrogen and helium RRLs. These results demonstrate that LOFAR has the desired spectral stability and sensitivity to study faint recombination lines in the decameter band.
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| 28. |
- Best, Myron G., et al.
(författare)
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Swarm Intelligence-Enhanced Detection of Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer Using Tumor-Educated Platelets
- 2017
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Ingår i: Cancer Cell. - : Elsevier. - 1535-6108 .- 1878-3686. ; 32:2, s. 238-252
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Blood-based liquid biopsies, including tumor-educated blood platelets (TEPs), have emerged as promising biomarker sources for non-invasive detection of cancer. Here we demonstrate that particle-swarm optimization (PSO)-enhanced algorithms enable efficient selection of RNA biomarker panels from platelet RNA sequencing libraries (n = 779). This resulted in accurate TEP-based detection of early- and late-stage non-small-cell lung cancer (n = 518 late-stage validation cohort, accuracy, 88%; AUC, 0.94; 95% CI, 0.92-0.96; p < 0.001; n = 106 early-stage validation cohort, accuracy, 81%; AUC, 0.89; 95% CI, 0.83-0.95; p < 0.001), independent of age of the individuals, smoking habits, whole-blood storage time, and various inflammatory conditions. PSO enabled selection of gene panels to diagnose cancer from TEPs, suggesting that swarm intelligence may also benefit the optimization of diagnostics readout of other liquid biopsy biosources.
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| 29. |
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| 30. |
- Coenen, T., et al.
(författare)
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The LOFAR pilot surveys for pulsars and fast radio transients
- 2014
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 570, s. 1-16
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We have conducted two pilot surveys for radio pulsars and fast transients with the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) around 140 MHz and here report on the first low-frequency fast-radio burst limit and the discovery of two new pulsars. The first survey, the LOFAR Pilot Pulsar Survey (LPPS), observed a large fraction of the northern sky, ~ 1.4 × 104 deg2, with 1 h dwell times. Each observation covered ~75 deg2 using 7 independent fields formed by incoherently summing the high-band antenna fields. The second pilot survey, the LOFAR Tied-Array Survey (LOTAS), spanned ~600 deg2, with roughly a 5-fold increase in sensitivity compared with LPPS. Using a coherent sum of the 6 LOFAR “Superterp” stations, we formed 19 tied-array beams, together covering 4 deg2 per pointing. From LPPS we derive a limit on the occurrence, at 142 MHz, of dispersed radio bursts of < 150 day-1 sky-1, for bursts brighter than S> 107 Jy for the narrowest searched burst duration of 0.66 ms. In LPPS, we re-detected 65 previously known pulsars. LOTAS discovered two pulsars, the first with LOFAR or any digital aperture array. LOTAS also re-detected 27 previously known pulsars. These pilot studies show that LOFAR can efficiently carry out all-sky surveys for pulsars and fast transients, and they set the stage for further surveying efforts using LOFAR and the planned low-frequency component of the Square Kilometer Array.
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