A study of radio astronomy principles and SKA pathfinder system designs with pulsar science

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an international project to build the world's largest and most sensitiveradio telescope interferometer. It will consist of thousands of antennas distributed over many kilometers,with the hosting country being either South Africa or Australia. Various pathfinders have been initiated todemonstrate the technologies needed to implement the SKA. The astronomy community has defined fiveKey Science Projects (KSP), which are the drivers for the SKA. The science goals determine the technicalrequirements needed to design SKA systems. Many years of planning and development are still needed inorder to meet to the requirements of such a large and complex project.This thesis aims to present the various SKA pathfinder systems in terms of their application to the SKAkey science projects, with main focus that of pulsar observations. In order to achieve this, a thorough overviewof basic radio astronomy principles and techniques is presented, followed by a detailed look at the variouspathfinders. Throughout the work, aspects of pulsar observations are given particular attention with the goal ofdesigning optimal systems for the SKA.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University