NG-VLA MX meeting

First Mexican meeting in route to
the Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA)

September 25^th - 27^th 2023

Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico

Program

Oral Contributions

Gallery

Presentations

Contact: ngvla-meeting@irya.unam.mx

Scientific Rationale

First Mexican meeting in route to the Next Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA)

The ngVLA, led by the National Radioastronomy Observatory (NRAO), will be the largest radio interferometer ever built in the northern hemisphere. With more than 200 antennas distributed across the US, Canada, and Mexico, the array will reach spatial resolutions and sensitivities without precedents. Importantly, the new radio telescope aspires to give access to the worldwide scientific community and to provide science-ready scientific products.

The National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) formally became a member from this multinational project through a cooperation agreement signed with NRAO in November 2022. This will allow the Mexican community to continue first-class research in numerous astrophysical fields in the coming decades.

To promote and drive the participation of Mexico in the ngVLA, the Institute of Radioastronomy and Astrophysics (IRyA-UNAM) is inviting the community to a kick-start meeting! A variety of invited and contributed talks will be presented, focusing on design and performance aspects of the telescope and its relevance to astronomy through main scientific drivers. The community is encouraged to bring scientific cases that could benefit from the ngVLA and discuss them with presenters and local staff.

Meeting to be held in the UNAM Campus Morelia from 25^th to 27^th September, 2023. The event has a capacity limit of 80 people and no fee. During the meeting lunch and coffee breaks will be offered by the institute, while social dinner will be at the expense of each attendee. Opportunities to request financial support to attend the meeting will be available, with the reservation of a hotel room for students and postdocs; priority will be given to students. The financial support will be subject to budget availability.

Useful link: Official ngVLA site

A more detailed description of the project (including the key science goals) and the involvement of Mexico is here.

The Next-Generation Very Large Array (ngVLA) is a project led by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) located in the USA. It is an interferometric array that improves by more than an order of magnitude the sensitivity and spatial resolution of the Very Large Array (VLA) and Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). The ngVLA will operate from 1.2 GHz (∼ 21 cm) to 116 GHz (2.6 mm). As the next major national facility in ground-based radio astronomy, the ngVLA will open a new window on the universe through ultra-sensitive imaging of spectral lines and continuum emission with a milliarcsecond resolution.

The ngVLA will comprise an array of 263 reflector antennas, distributed across a long baseline array (LBA; 30 antennas with a diameter of 18m), a main array (214 antennas with a diameter of 18m), and a short baseline array (SBA; 19 antennas with a diameter of 6m). The ngVLA core will be located near the current VLA, in the plains of San Agust ́ın, New Mexico with additional mid-baseline stations in the USA and Mexico. Long baselines will be located in USA, Puerto Rico, and Canada.

The ngVLA will address five high-priority goals of modern astrophysics:

Revealing the formation of solar systems analogues on terrestrial scales.
Proving the initial conditions of planetary systems and life with astrochemistry.
Charting the assembly, structure, and evolution of galaxies from the first billion years to the present.
Using galactic center pulsars for a fundamental test of gravity.
Understanding the formation and evolution of stellar and supermassive black holes in the era of multi-messenger astronomy.

The ngVLA will provide high-quality data products, allowing users, from all branches of astronomy, to focus on their science rather than data reduction.

While the USA is expected to be the ngVLA majority partner, there are ongoing collaborations with international partners: the National Research Council Canada (NRCC), the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ), the Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics (ASIAA) of Taiwan, and the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM), with whom a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in November 2022. It is expected that the ngVLA construction will begin by 2026 with early scientific observations starting in 2029 and full scientific operations by 2035.

NRAO Community Days

After the first national meeting on ngVLA, IRyA will host the "NRAO Community Days”, the 28^th and 29^th of September.

This event is organized by NRAO, the North American ALMA Science Center (NAASC) and IRyA. All the persons who want to learn or deepen their knowledge about the calibration of VLA and ALMA data can register to the NRAO Community Days event. Introduction lectures about interferometry together with tutorials for calibrating centimeters and millimeters radio data using the software package CASA, will be given by NRAO experts.

For more information, please contact: radioworkshops@irya.unam.mx.

Important Dates

Registration, abstract, and application for support open: May 8^th 2023.
Abstract submission deadline : June 30^th 2023.
Announcement of accepted talks and deadline to rquest financial support: July 31^st 2023.
Registration deadline without financial support: August 11^st 2023.

Conference Program

The scientific program will consist of talks presented by the invited speakers focused on how ngVLA will benefit the different areas of research, contributed talks and plenty of time for discussion. Poster contributions will also be displayed.

You can download the program here.