gateau: An observation simulator for ground-based submillimetre astronomy with integral field units and kinetic inductance detectors

Astronomy and Astrophysics, vol. 713, pp. A330

Abstract

Aims . We have developed gateau , a modular, flexible, and efficient end-to-end simulator for submillimetre (submm) integral field units (IFUs) that use kinetic inductance detectors (KIDs). The simulator consists of a Python interface, powered by a C/C++ backend that uses CUDA for GPU-acceleration, and is publicly available and fully open-source. Methods . gateau simulates observations by taking user input such as an astronomical source, a set of atmospheric screens, a scan pattern, and telescope and instrument parameters. The source signal is propagated through a dynamical model of the atmosphere and optical path at the telescope using a customisable radiative transfer cascade. A dispersive element model, which can be a filterbank, grating, or user-supplied model, is used to calculate the total power per spectral channel, for each spatial pixel on the IFU. A physically motivated photon-noise model is used to add a white noise component to the received power. Detector noise is added as temporally correlated pink noise. The output is stored in the form of time-ordered datasets. Results . We validated gateau against observations with DESHIMA 2.0, a superconducting, ultra-wideband spectrometer utilising KIDs and on-chip filterbank technology. We show that we can reproduce real observations of the atmosphere and Uranus with gateau simulations. Then, we present an example use case to show how gateau can be used to simulate long observations of a faint source. Finally, we investigate the scalability of gateau and argue that it can be used to simulate large IFUs with detector counts of up to 10 7 KIDs. Conclusions . We conclude that gateau is a suitable instrument simulator for large submm IFUs using KIDs and that it will prove crucial for the design, testing, and operation of these instruments, along with observation plans, calibration strategies, and data reduction pipelines.

Authors 10

1. Arend Moerman

   Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Delft University of Technology

2. N. Soshnin

   Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Delft University of Technology

3. S. A. Brackenhoff

   Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Delft University of Technology

4. Shahab O. Dabironezare Aachen SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research

   Space Research Organisation Netherlands · Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Delft University of Technology

   SRON—Netherlands Institute for Space Research

5. K. Karatsu Aachen SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research

   Space Research Organisation Netherlands

   Affiliation as printed

   SRON—Netherlands Institute for Space Research

6. Louis H. Marting Aachen SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research

   Space Research Organisation Netherlands · Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Delft University of Technology

   SRON—Netherlands Institute for Space Research

7. S.A.H. de Rooij Aachen Huygens-Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research

   Leiden University · Space Research Organisation Netherlands · Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Delft University of Technology

   Huygens-Kamerlingh Onnes Laboratory, Leiden Institute of Physics, Leiden University

   SRON—Netherlands Institute for Space Research

8. M. Roos

   Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Faculty of Applied Sciences, Delft University of Technology

   Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Delft University of Technology

9. Bernhard R. Brandl Aachen Leiden Observatory

   Leiden University · Leiden Observatory · Delft University of Technology

   Affiliation as printed

   Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, Delft University of Technology

   Leiden Observatory, Leiden University

10. Akira Endo

    Delft University of Technology

    Affiliation as printed

    Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Delft University of Technology