| NSF Org: |
AST Division Of Astronomical Sciences |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | September 4, 2015 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | July 20, 2018 |
| Award Number: | 1518282 |
| Award Instrument: | Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Richard Barvainis
AST Division Of Astronomical Sciences MPS Directorate for Mathematical and Physical Sciences |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2015 |
| End Date: | August 31, 2019 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $965,849.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $1,158,668.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2018 = $192,819.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1200 E CALIFORNIA BLVD PASADENA CA US 91125-0001 (626)395-6219 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1200 E California Blvd Pasadena CA US 91125-0002 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): | EXTRAGALACTIC ASTRON & COSMOLO |
| Primary Program Source: |
01001819DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.049 |
ABSTRACT
The objective of this program is to commission a polarization-sensitive radio receiver and build a digital backend for the CO Mapping Array Pathfinder (COMAP) experiment, as well as observe for two years using this equipment on a 10m-diameter radio telescope. The COMAP program is part of a much larger effort by the astronomical community to understand the origin and evolution of the universe and the formation of stars and galaxies. Broader impacts of the work include mentoring of undergraduates and research training of graduate students in instrumentation development. The COMAP team will communicate their results via public lectures, web pages, and activities at the telescope. Students and early-career researchers will be trained in a variety of cutting edge techniques in radio frequency design, technology development and analysis of large data sets. Personnel funded by this proposal will participate in an education and outreach program at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory, bringing the excitement of scientific research to a diverse community that includes a Native American population.
COMAP aims to measure emission from both the CO J=1-0 transition at redshifts 2.4 < z < 2.8 and the J=2-1 transition at 5.8 < z < 6.7, probing the 3D power spectrum of CO, which acts as a tracer for star formation.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
The Universe began with a Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago. 400,000 years after the Big Bang, the Universe had no stars or galaxies, but was filled with gas - mostly hydrogen atoms. Over the next few billion years these atoms formed themselves into the first stars, galaxies and groups of galaxies, eventually resulting in the kind of Universe we see around us today. We can't see the starlight from these first galaxies because at this time the hydrogen atoms between the galaxies acted as a kind of fog. Radio waves from carbon monoxide (CO) gas in the galaxies can pierce the fog and carry information about the nature and location of these early stars and galaxies.
We have built a new kind of 'radio camera' and will use it to measure these radio waves and unveil the hidden galaxies. The camera consists of 19 separate 'pixels', each making an independent measurement. The camera has been placed on a 10-m radio telescope based at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory (OVRO) near Bishop, CA. From there, we will spend the next two years observing the distant universe. As a first step, we will target a slightly more recent epoch in the universe's history, a time called the Epoch of Galaxy Assembly, around 2-3 billion years after the Big Bang, when the formation of stars reached its peak
The project has funded the construction and testing of this new instrument. By the end of the project, the instrument had met its design goals and started science operations. With the help of subsequent funding, we have started a two-year observing campaign with the aim to detect the CO signal from the Epoch of Galaxy Assembly. Future phases of the experiment will add more radio cameras operating at different frequencies in order to make measurements of even earlier times in the universe's history.
The students and postdocs that worked on the project have gained valuable hands-on experience with radio-astronomy instrumentation and data analysis. Outreach activities included tours of the COMAP telescope and talks from the PI at annual OVRO Open Houses and talks from project members at a community college near the observatory.
Last Modified: 10/16/2019
Modified by: Kieran A Cleary
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