Govind Swarup Memorial Lecture - 2022

Abstract

The GMRT and its relatively recent upgrade, the uGMRT, has been and still is a fantastic instrument for pulsar research. It has many unique features, including the largest collecting area over the band 130 to 1450 MHz of all the world’s radio tele- scopes. Many of these unique features were the result of the skill and foresight of Govind Swarup whose life and work we celebrate with this Memorial Lecture. Right from the GMRT’s conception in 1982, Govind planned an array that could work in a tied-array total-power mode as well as an interferometric mode. The large (45-m) parabolic dishes that form the array were conceived and designed by Govind, and gave the high sensitivity needed both for pulsar work and for interferometric studies. After a brief Introduction to pulsars, I will discuss the evolution of the array, especially the signal-processing sys- tems, that have enabled multiple different modes for pulsar observations and describe the many interesting and important scientific advances in pulsar astronomy and astrophysics that have flowed from these observations. I will conclude with a look to the future, including India’s and the uGMRT’s role in both the International Pulsar Timing Array (IPTA) and the inter- national Square Kilometre Array (SKA) projects.

The lecture will be held online on 24th March 2022 at 15:00 IST (9:30 UT) and can be viewed at
https://www.youtube.com/ncraoutreachcommittee/live