Abstract

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is the next generation of international giant radio telescopes. With its eponymous one million square meter collecting area it will be 50 times more sensitive than any existing radio telescope. Its ambitious Key Science Projects (KSP) are 'Probing the Dark Ages', 'Galaxy Evolution, Cosmology and Dark Energy', 'The Origin and Evolution of Cosmic Magnetism', 'Strong Field Tests of Gravity Using Pulsars and Black Holes' and 'The Cradle of Life'. All of these KSP require unprecedented precision polarimetry and wide fields of view. I will discuss the problems involved in achieving the demanding specifications. In addition to these nominal telescope objectives, I will also discuss how aperture arrays, such as SKA, can possibly be used to detect radio orbital angular momentum. I explain the novel technique for its detection I call nil antenna forming, and show first results based on data from the LOFAR antenna.

The presentation (PDF)