AMiBA: System performance

Abstract

The Y.T. Lee Array for Microwave Background Anisotropy started scientific operation in early 2007. This work describes the optimization of the system performance for the measurements of the Sunyaev-Zel'dovich effect for six massive galaxy clusters at redshifts 0.09-0.32. We achieved a point-source sensitivity of 63 ± 7 mJy with the seven 0.6 m dishes in 1 hr of on-source integration in two-patch differencing observations. We measured and compensated for the delays between the antennas of our platform-mounted interferometer. Beam switching was used to cancel instrumental instabilities and ground pick up. Total power and phase stability were good on timescales of hours, and the system was shown to integrate down on equivalent timescales of 300 hr per baseline/correlation, or about 10 hr for the entire array. While the broadband correlator leads to good sensitivity, the small number of lags in the correlator resulted in poorly measured bandpass response. We corrected for this by using external calibrators (Jupiter and Saturn). Using Jupiter as the flux standard, we measured the disk brightness temperature of Saturn to be 149 +5-12 K. © 2009. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.