Speaker
Francesco De Gasperin
Description
LOFAR is a revolutionary new telescope that opens up largely unexplored windows to the world’s astronomical community, by covering the radio frequency ranges 10-90 MHz and 110-250 MHz with unprecedented sensitivity and angular, spectral, and temporal resolution. It is a highly flexible, all-electronic telescope of phased-array antenna stations, making use of powerful (super)computer processing and (partially Grid-based) data storage facilities. Large Surveys are one of the key science projects that are defined as prime scientific goals for the LOFAR facility and prime drivers for its technical development. The class of astronomical objects that will dominate the counts in most of the planned LOFAR surveys are indeed AGN, i.e. actively growing supermassive black holes. The analysis and the interpretation of LOFAR survey data will be a fundamental importance to study the evolution of the most powerful AGN up to the highest possible redshifts, as well as to unveil the vast majority of less luminous objects, whose overall contribution to the energy output from growing black holes should be, according to our most recent estimates, substantial.
Here we describe the basic principles of LOFAR design and operation, present an update on the current status of the telescope, and briefly describe the main scientific goals of our research program at the EXC.