Science Opportunities Unique to the LWA

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This project will support operations of the Long Wavelength Array (LWA) which provides access to the little explored part of the electromagnetic spectrum below 100 MHz. This region includes the recently detected sky-averaged absorption feature at 78 MHz from cosmic dawn when the first stars began to shine and the Universe was only 180 million years old. The LWA, operated by the University of New Mexico, is one of the last remaining University Radio Observatories. Such facilities are essential training grounds for the next generation of instrument builders. Students and post-docs, both at UNM and other US Universities, play an essential role as developers and users.With this project the highly successful first station of the Long Wavelength Array (LWA1) will be converted to a multi-site observatory by combining LWA1 with the new LWA station at Sevilleta (LWA-SV), and the new low-frequency capability on the Very Large Array (VLA). This expanded LWA (ELWA) will overcome the primary limitation of LWA1 -- angular resolution -- and make the observatory competitive with any other instrument in the world operating in this frequency range. This new capability will be offered to the community in regular calls for proposals. At the same time the existing LWA1 and LWA-SV stations will also be open to the community either separately or together. The LWA stations consist of 256 dual-polarization dipoles, which are digitized and combined into beams, or cross-correlated to form all-sky images. With its high temporal (50 nanoseconds), and high spectral (1 Hz) resolution the LWA is making major contributions to established fields (Jupiter and Solar bursts, pulsars, ionosphere), and opening up new areas of study (radio bursts from fireballs, pulsar environments, and detections or limits on new transients such as gravitational wave sources).This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.