Unwin, S. and Cook, W. R. and Jenet, R. and Prince, Thomas A.
(1997)
A Wide-Bandwidth Digital Recording System for Radio Pulsar Astronomy.
Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, 109
(6).
pp. 707-718.
ISSN 0004-6280.
https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20141203-163253041
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Abstract
The study of radio pulsars at the highest time resolution is currently limited by the capability of the signal detection system to accept a wide-bandwidth signal, and to sample the data rapidly enough. We describe a new instrument for pulsar research which utilizes baseband recording at 400 Mbit s - t to achieve both a high bandwidth and a high sustained data rate. The wide bandwidth digital recording (WBDR)system is based on a custom analog/digital VLSI digitizer operating at 50 MHz, and a commercial digital cassette tape recorder. Signal analysis is performed entirely in software, using a massively parallel computer. Since we record a representation of the electric vector of the pulsar emission, the instrument is very flexible, and the data can be analyzed in several modes in software. We can synthesize the software equivalent of a conventional hardware filterbank, and we have implemented a "coherent dedispersion" algorithm, which yields a sample time of 10 ns. The combination of a wide bandwidth and sustained data
rate make this instrument a unique and powerful tool for pulsar astronomy. Our instrument is particularly
well-suited to searches for millisecond pulsars at low frequency, in directions where pulsed signals are
strongly dispersed by the interstellar medium. We present results based on dual-polarization test observations in a 600::':: 25 MHz band at the Owens Valley Radio Observatory 40-m Telescope.
Item Type: | Article |
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Additional Information: | © Astronomical Society of the Pacific. Provided by the NASA Astrophysics Data System.
Received 1996 November 12; accepted 1997 February 21.
We are grateful to Stuart Anderson and Vicky Kaspi for
their help in implementing the coherent dedispersion algorithm,
and comments on the text. John Yamasaki, Derrick
Key, Mark Hodges, and Russ Keeney helped with hardware
construction. We thank Shri Kulkami, José Navarro, and
Jagmit Sandhu for many stimulating discussions. Datatape
Inc., provided advice and engineering support throughout
the development of this system. This work was supported
by the NSF under Grant Nos. AST 90-20787 and ASC 93-18145 |
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Group: | Space Radiation Laboratory |
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Funders: | Funding Agency | Grant Number |
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NSF | AST 90-20787 | NSF | ASC 93-18145 |
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Other Numbering System: | Other Numbering System Name | Other Numbering System ID |
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Space Radiation Laboratory | 1997-59 |
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Issue or Number: | 6 |
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Record Number: | CaltechAUTHORS:20141203-163253041 |
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Persistent URL: | https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechAUTHORS:20141203-163253041 |
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Usage Policy: | No commercial reproduction, distribution, display or performance rights in this work are provided. |
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ID Code: | 52362 |
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Collection: | CaltechAUTHORS |
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Deposited By: |
Deborah Miles
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Deposited On: | 08 Dec 2014 03:24 |
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Last Modified: | 03 Oct 2019 07:41 |
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