Measurement of the anisotropy power spectrum of the radio synchrotron background
Measurement of the anisotropy power spectrum of the radio synchrotron background
复制标题
射电同步加速器背景各向异性功率谱的测量
DOI:
10.1093/mnras/stab2865
复制
发表时间:
2021
影响因子:
4.8
通讯作者:
Lucero, D M
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Offringa, A R;Singal, J;Heston, S;Horiuchi, S;Lucero, D M
We present the first targeted measurement of the power spectrum of anisotropies of the radio synchrotron background, at 140 MHz, where it is the overwhelmingly dominant photon background. This measurement is important for understanding the background level of radio sky brightness, which is dominated by steep-spectrum synchrotron radiation at frequencies belowν∼ 0.5 GHz and has been measured to be significantly higher than that produced by known classes of extragalactic sources and most models of Galactic halo emission. We determine the anisotropy power spectrum on scales ranging from 2° to 0.2 arcmin with Low-Frequency Array observations of two 18-deg2fields – one centred on the Northern hemisphere’s coldest patch of radio sky where the Galactic contribution is smallest and the other offset from that location by 15°. We find that the anisotropy power is higher than that attributable to the distribution of point sources above 100Jy in flux. This level of radio anisotropy power indicates that if it results from point sources, those sources are likely at low fluxes and incredibly numerous, and likely clustered in a specific manner.