Improving the Resolution and Sensitivity of Microwave Astronomical Observations

Millimetre and microwave astronomy has been an ever-expanding field over the past decades with an improvement in computational power, semi-conductors, super-conductors and read-out electronics. This has led to more powerful and sensitive instruments as well as higher resolutions for both single-dish and interferometric observations. In this work I will be giving an overview of my work on one current and one future experiment: TolTEC, a millimetre-wave camera with polarization capabilities on the Large Millimetre Telescope in Mexico currently undergoing commissioning, in particular designing the TolTEC Fields and Filaments survey and BVEX, a K-band balloon-borne Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) station where I will be presenting my design and sensitivity requirements for the K-band receiver. While TolTEC will deliver science-ready maps of the linear Stokes parameters I, Q, and U in the short term, BVEX will serve as a proof of concept and stepping stone for a future generation VLBI experiment capable of millimetre and sub-millimetre wavelengths.

Department dc:contributor.department

Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy

Author dc:creator

• Thiel, Felix M.

Advisor dc:contributor.supervisor

• Fissel, Laura

• Millimetre-wave Astronomy
• Astronomical Instrumentation
• Star Formation

Statement dc:rights

• Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

https://hdl.handle.net/1974/31871

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:queensu.scholaris.ca:1974/31871