We describe the performance of our latest generations of sensitive wide-band high-resolution digital fast Fourier transform spectrometer (FFTS). Their design, optimized for a wide range of radio astronomical applications, is presented. Developed for operation with the GREAT far infrared heterodyne spectrometer on-board SOFIA, the eXtended bandwidth FFTS (XFFTS) offers a high instantaneous bandwidth of 2.5 GHz with 88.5 kHz spectral resolution and has been in routine operation during SOFIA's Basic Science since July 2011. We discuss the advanced field programmable gate array (FPGA) signal processing pipeline, with an optimized multi-tap polyphase filter bank algorithm that provides a nearly loss-less time-to-frequency data conversion with significantly reduced frequency scallop and fast sidelobe fall-off. Our digital spectrometers have been proven to be extremely reliable and robust, even under the harsh environmental conditions of an airborne observatory, with Allan-variance stability times of several 1000 s. An enhancement of the present 2.5 GHz XFFTS will duplicate the number of spectral channels (64k), offering spectroscopy with even better resolution during Cycle 1 observations.
Aims. The circumnuclear disk (CND) of the Galactic center is exposed to many energetic phenomena coming from the supermassive black hole Sgr A* and from stellar activities. These energetic activities can affect the chemical composition in the CND through interaction with UV photons, cosmic rays, X-rays, and shock waves. We aim to constrain the physical conditions present in the CND through chemical modeling of observed molecular species detected toward it. Methods. We analyzed a selected set of molecular line data taken toward a position in the southwest lobe of the CND with the IRAM 30m and APEX 12-m telescopes and derived the column density of each molecule via a large velocity gradient (LVG) analysis. The determined chemical composition is compared with a time-dependent, gas-grain chemical model based on the UCL_CHEM code,which includes the effects of shock waves with varying physical parameters. Results. We detect molecules, such as CO, HCN, HCO + , HNC, CS, SO, SiO, NO, CN, H 2 CO, HC 3 N, N 2 H + , and H 3 O + , and obtain their column densities. Total hydrogen densities obtained from LVG analysis range between 2 × 10 4 and 1 × 10 6 cm −3 and most species indicate values around several ×10 5 cm −3 . These values are lower than those corresponding to the Roche limit, which shows that the CND is tidally unstable. The chemical models show good agreement with the observations in cases where the density is ∼10 4 cm −3 , the cosmic-ray ionization rate is high, >10 −15 s −1 , or shocks with velocities >40 km s −1 have occurred. Conclusions. Comparison of models and observations favors a scenario where the cosmic-ray ionization rate in the CND is high, but precise effects of other factors, such as shocks, density structures, UV photons, and X-rays from the Sgr A*, must be examined with higher spatial resolution data.
We report on developments of submillimeter heterodyne arrays for high resolution spectroscopy with APEX. Shortly, we will operate state-of-the-art instruments in all major atmospheric windows accessible from Llano de Chajnantor. CHAMP + , a dual-color 2× 7 element heterodyne array for operation in the 450 µm and 350 µm atmospheric windows is in operation since late 2007. With its state-of-the-art SIS detectors and wide tunable local oscillators, its cold optics with single sideband filters and with 3 GHz of processed IF bandwidth per pixel, CHAMP + does provide outstanding observing capabilities. The Large APEX sub-Millimeter Array (LAsMA) is in the final design phase, with an installation goal in 2009. The receiver will operate 7 and 19 pixels in the lower submillimeter windows, 285-375 GHz and 385-520 GHz, respectively. The front-ends are served by an array of digital wideband Fast Fourier Transform spectrometers currently processing up to 32×1.5 (optionally 1.8) GHz of bandwidth. For CHAMP + , we process 2.8 GHz of instantaneous bandwidth (in 16.4 k channels) for each of the 14 pixels.
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