2022-06-09

Owned by Samuel James McSweeney
Last updated: Jun 09, 2022
3 min read

Present:

  • Garvit Grover
  • Susmita Sett
  • Sam McSweeney
  • Ramesh Bhat
  • Steven Tremblay
  • Shi Dai
  • Willem van Straten
  • Mengyao Xue
  • Ryan Shannon

Agenda:

1. General updates (Ramesh) 
2. Calibration of SMART obs (Sammy) 
3. FAST follow-up of MWA pulsars (Mengyao) 
4. Simulation exercise to test FFA (Garvit) 
5. MWA imaging of PSR J0026 (Sammy/Ramesh)
6. Paper updates (Ramesh/Sammy) 
7. Discussion on the PFT policy (all) 

Minutes:

  1. General updates (Ramesh)
    • Update on MWA and 2022A: "MWA is officially back online", ~100 tiles functioning
      • Installing 17th receiver (= 136 tiles) – stepping towards Phase III (target = 256 tiles)
      • Compact configuration will not come back until end of semester (~Sep? Oct?) – no change since last update
    • PSR #2 followup
      • Imaged with GMRT (Band 3 & Band 4)
      • Positional offset of 30'' between MWA and GMRT consistent with ionospheric. Other(?) offsets within 4''.
    • PSR #3 followup
      • UWL detection (thanks to Shi): S1600 ~ 0.1 mJy
      • GMRT detection Band 3, ~30 mins
        • Detection in band 3 image faint, possibly non-detection
        • Detection in band 4 also faint, but identification of pulsar with a few closely-spaced sources is tricky.
    • Other updates
      • Processing slow down (ASVO has been down)
      • Carry-on effects = haven't been able to complete requested processing time
      • Webapp further development has been requested
      • MWAX commissioning won't progress until Aug/Sept
      • SGAN tool yet to be implemented
      • Isaac Colleran got honourable mention for his Honours thesis
  2. Discussion on the PFT policy (all)
    • Need to formalise before upcoming MWA Project meeting – written policy required by MWA board
    • Probably can be "minimal" in terms of structure
    • Summary of points to consider (not listed in these minutes)
    • Ryan: Points should include "future capabilities", "scope of SWG's work"
      • Ramesh: Yes, agree. Scope can be broadened
    • **Willem leaves**
    • Sam: To what extent can we rely on default MWA policy?
      • Ramesh: publication policy is already well defined, but data management is "group-specific" and needs to be addressed. Similarly for defining how work duplication is avoided.
    • Mengyao: Should include up-to-date list of projects for better management of diversity of projects, at increasing number of places around the world
      • Ramesh: Agreed.
  3. Calibration (Sam)
    • Calibration solutions by Nick previously using RTS 
    • Working on polarisation calibration 
    • All solutions on SMART Web app
    • Improving the solutions - remake with Hyperdrive, interpolate over RFI-ridden channels, improved sky models to reduce power in XY and YX, some extra tile flagging is warranted
    • Main concern - get polarisation right!
    • Finding the X-Y phase offset - Using only stokes I models so not constrained, 
    • Model using single number - stable in time
    • Plan forward - Garvit follow up of an obs 1267111608, which has B0943+10, use fractional polarisation to check leakage from I as pulsar passes through primary beam, verify/repeat for other pulsars
  4. FAST follow-up of MWA pulsars (Mengyao)
    • Granted several hrs to observe PSR #1 (only one in MWA/FAST common sky)
    • Interesting for its scintillation
    • PRESTO/PSRCHIVE plots shown
    • Second observing run had lots of RFI, but can be seen in the last minutes!
    • Ramesh & Sam: Surprising to see how it behaves in time/frequency for second observing run!
    • Ramesh: Can we ask for make-up time for second obs (because of RFI)?
      • Mengyao: Can ask in August
  5. Garvit's update:
    • Following up candidates for most recent batch of ranked candidates – nothing convincing yet, is ongoing
    • Other work is making simulations of pulsar signals in order to compare different search algorithms compare (FFT vs FFA vs single pulse)
    • Ramesh: GMRT just published a paper on a similar exercise (comparing FFT and FFA)
  6. Ramesh update on survey description paper
    • Timescale for getting survey description paper out to MWA collaboration review = ~ a few weeks
    • Almost all sections written (just lacking a couple of paragraphs from Ramesh and Sam)
    • Last remaining major task is finalising table and profile gallery plot
    • Brad and Steven to do first pass reading