The Mauritius radio telescope and a study of selected super nova remnants associated with pulsars

Abstract

The just completed Mauritius Radio Telescope, a 2km by 1km T shaped synthesis array designed to repeat the 6C survey but for the Southern hemisphere, is described. Full details of the instrument hardware, and the software designed to interpret the output of the hardware are presented. The early results from the instrument, in the shape of maps of known SNR with possibly associated pulsars, are shown. In combination with publicly available X-ray data and published maps at other frequencies, conclusions on the associations are drawn. The sources described are G5.4-2.3 with PSR 1757-23, G8.7-0.1 with PSR 1800-21, G315.4-2.3 with SN 185, G320.4-1.2 with PSR 1509-58 and G343.1-2.3 with PSR 1706-44.The MRT project is an example of hardware simplifications being made possible by the increasing power and sophistication of software and computation. The sheer speed with which calculations can be done nowadays has allowed corrections to be applied post facturn, where previously it would have to be fixed in hardware (at much greater cost).