AMiBA: System Performance

Abstract

The Y.T. Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy (AMiBA) started scientific operation in early 2007. This work describes the optimization of the system performance for the measurements of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect for six massive galaxy clusters at redshifts $0.09-0.32$. We achieved a point source sensitivity of $63\pm 7$ mJy with the seven 0.6m dishes in 1 hour of on-source integration in 2-patch differencing observations. We measured and compensated for the delays between the antennas of our platform-mounted interferometer. Beam switching was used to cancel instrumental instabilities and ground pick up. Total power and phase stability were good on time scales of hours, and the system was shown to integrate down on equivalent timescales of 300 hours per baseline/correlation, or about 10 hours for the entire array. While the broadband correlator leads to good sensitivity, the small number of lags in the correlator resulted in poorly measured bandpass response. We corrected for this by using external calibrators (Jupiter and Saturn). Using Jupiter as the flux standard, we measured the disk brightness temperature of Saturn to be $149_{-12}^{+5}$ K.

9 pages, 7 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in ApJ

References in corpus (5)

• Mass and Hot Baryons in Massive Galaxy Clusters from Subaru Weak Lensing and AMiBA SZE Observations
• The AMiBA Hexapod Telescope Mount
• The Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy
• AMiBA: Broadband Heterodyne CMB Interferometry
• Tests of AMiBA Data Integrity

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Astrophysics with the Spatially and Spectrally Resolved Sunyaev-Zeldovich Effects: A Millimetre/Submillimetre Probe of the Warm and Hot Universe
• Mass and Hot Baryons in Massive Galaxy Clusters from Subaru Weak Lensing and AMiBA SZE Observations
• The AMiBA Hexapod Telescope Mount
• The Yuan-Tseh Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy
• AMiBA: Broadband Heterodyne CMB Interferometry
• AMiBA Wideband Analog Correlator
• AMiBA: scaling relations between the integrated Compton-y and X-ray derived temperature, mass, and luminosity
• Tests of AMiBA Data Integrity
• Constraining Intra-cluster Gas Models with AMiBA13
• AMiBA: Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect derived properties and scaling relations of massive galaxy clusters
• Contamination of the Central Sunyaev--Zel'dovich Decrements in AMiBA Galaxy Cluster Observations
• 1.2 Meter Shielded Cassegrain Antenna for Close-Packed Radio Interferometer
• Platform Deformation Phase Correction for the AMiBA-13 Co-planar Interferometer
• AMiBA: Cluster Sunyaev-Zel'dovich Effect Observations with the Expanded 13-Element Array