Project Description
The Arecibo Remote Command Center at UWM (ARCC@UWM) program is specifically designed to allow students to significantly contribute to cutting-edge research, namely the discovery of pulsars. The ultimate goal is to increase the number of pulsars available for gravitational wave searches using pulsars---so-called pulsar timing experiments. Gravitational waves could be found in small irregularities in the times of arrival of radio pulses emitted by pulsars.
The PALFA and GBNCC pulsar surveys that UWM participates in are led by about 30 scientists around the world: this is a direct collaboration of UWM undergraduates with other undergraduate students, graduate students, and professional scientists world-wide.
This effort is complementary to the large UWM LIGO effort to detect gravitational waves using interferometers. The ARCC@UWM facility allows undergraduates, graduate students, and scientists at UWM to conduct remote radio telescope observations using some of the most important observatories across the world (such as the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia, and the Parkes Observatory in Australia). Our undergraduate and high-school researchers also contribute to the search for pulsars by performing the (fundamental) final step of the data analysis: visually inspecting potential pulsar candidates generated by the search pipeline to determine whether a pulsar has been found.
ARCC@UWM participants also attend Astronomy Club, weekly meetings where issues related to the research as well as broader topics in astronomy are discussed. Students interact with other students of diverse levels and backgrounds, UWM graduate students, postdocs, and faculty, and local high school science teachers and students.
Tasks and Responsibilites
Remote pulsar searches: Via a guided user interface small groups of students (3-5) assume remote control of a radio telescope over the internet. Observing is done in collaboration with similar groups students at Franklin & Marshall College (Lancaster, Pennsylvania), Kenyon College (Gambier, OH), UW-Bothell, and Swarthmore College (Philadelphia, PA), using a combination of teleconference phones and webcams. The observing teams consist of UWM, Franklin & Marshall, Kenyon, Swarthmore, and Bothell students and are in charge of running the instrument, checking the data collected for potential pulsars and keeping an eye on the status of the instrument. As part of the PALFA and GBNCC collaborations we perform searches for new radio pulsars according to the appropriate observing schedule. The main radio telescopes we have access to are the Arecibo Observatory (the largest radio telescope in the world) and the Green Bank Radio telescope (the largest steerable radio telescope in the world), although we have also performed remote observing with the Parkes radio telescope in Australia.
Candidate inspection: The data collected by radio telescopes is analyzed to search for the regular pulses emitted by pulsars. The results of this analysis are several figures of merit that need to be examined to determine whether a particular candidate is a pulsar or not. The reason is that radio interference (for example from cellphones or radars) or even noise can produce signals that the data analysis pipeline determines to be potential pulsars. Participants visually inspect pulsar candidates generated by the pipeline and rank the various figures of merit to determine whether the candidate is (or not) a pulsar. Since the inception of the ARCC program students have discovered over 60 new pulsars including 4 especially stable pulsars that have been added to the gravitational wave detection effort.
Astronomy club: Students participate in weekly meetings, and give regular presentations on their research and breaking astronomy news items (1-2 talks per student per semester). We also organize several very popular field trips as part of Astronomy Club to build community and enthusiasm.
Desired Qualifications
None Listed