Title：LOFAR Surveys: A New Window on the Universe

Speaker: Huub Rottgering (Leiden University)

Time：3:00 pm Oct. 30th (Thursday)

Tencent Meeting：46822606747 password: 6360

Location: Lecture Hall, 3rd floor

Abstract：

The Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) is a pan-European radio telescope with immense data collection and processing capabilities, making it an unprecedented and powerful instrument for conducting the deepest and widest radio surveys at the lowest frequencies accessible from the ground. Over recent years, we have addressed key issues related to the analysis and calibration of radio data, allowing us to now produce thermal noise-limited maps at low frequencies. Coupled with the excellent imaging from the Euclid space telescope, these maps enable studies across a broad range of scientific topics, including (i) shocks in merging clusters, (ii) radio feedback processes, (iii) star formation in distant galaxies, and (iv) the most distant radio AGN, near the epoch of reionisation. In this talk, I will first discuss solutions to the main technical challenges. Subsequently, I will present scientific highlights related to these four topics.

CV：

Prof. Huub Rottgering is a Professor of Observational Cosmology at Leiden University and served as the Director of Leiden Observatory from 2012 to 2022. His research focuses on the origin and evolution of active galaxies, galaxy clusters, and large-scale structures. He currently leads the LOFAR Survey Key Project, coordinating a team of 350 scientists to conduct the deepest and most extensive low-frequency surveys of the sky. The resulting high-quality radio maps together with data from the Euclid mission (in which he was involved from the beginning of the project) enabled fundamental studies of galaxy evolution and AGN.