SAAO Weekly Colloquium Thursday 29 February 2024

SAAO Weekly Colloquium Thursday 29 February 2024
Speaker: Prof Huub Rottgering
Brief Bio:
1993 PhD Leiden University, Ultra-Steep Spectrum Radio Sources: Tracers of Distant Galaxies
1993 - 1995 Postdoctoral Fellow, Cambridge University, England
1995 Staff, Leiden Observatory
2012 - 2022 Director of Leiden Observatory
Title: LOFAR Surveys: a new window on the Universe
Abstract:
The Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) is a pan-European radio telescope whose massive data taking and processing capabilities make it an unprecedented powerful instrument for carrying out the deepest and widest radio surveys at the lowest radio frequencies accessible from the ground. Over the last years we have addressed important issues related to the analysis and calibration of the radio data so that we can now make thermal noise limited maps at low frequencies. The resulting wide and deep maps enable studies of a wide range of scientific topics ranging from (i) shocks in merging clusters, (ii) radio feedback processes, (iii) star formation in distant galaxies and (iv) the most distant radio AGN, close to the epoch of reionisation. In this talk I will first discuss our solutions to the main technical challenges. Secondly, scientific highlights will be given related to these 4 topics.