Yuri Y. Balega

The article presents a brief review of cooling systems that ensure various temperature levels (from 0.1 K to 230 K) for radio astronomical receivers of photonic and electronic (or optical and radio) devices. The features of various cooling levels and the requirements for the design of the cooling systems are considered in detail, as well as the approaches to designing interfaces for cooled receivers: vacuum, cryogenic, electrical, mechanical, optical, and other interfaces required for effective operation. The presented approaches to design are illustrated by a series of joint developments of the authors carried out over the past 45 years, including those produced over the past year.

This article presents the results of evaluating the possibility of conducting radio astronomy studies in the windows of atmospheric transparency ~100, ~230, and ~350 GHz using the optical Big Telescope Alt-Azimuthal (BTA) of the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SAO RAS). A list of some promising astronomical tasks is proposed. The astroclimat conditions at the BTA site and possible optical, cryogenic, and mechanical interfaces for mounting a superconducting radio receiver at the focus of the optical telescope are considered. As a receiving system, arrays of detectors cooled to ~0.3 K based on the superconductor–insulator–normal metal–insulator–superconductor (SINIS) structure are proposed. The implementation of the project will make it possible to use the BTA site of the SAO RAS not only to solve some astronomical problems (it is possible to consider the implementation of a single observatory, the VLBI (very-long-baseline interferometry) mode in the Suffa, EHT (Event Horizon Telescope), and Millimetron projects), but it will also be used to test various cryogenic detectors in a real observatory.

: The article presents a brief review of cooling systems of various temperature levels (from 0.1 K to 230 K) for radio astronomical receivers of photonics and electronics. The features of various levels of cooling and the requirements for the design of the cooling system are considered in detail, as well as approaches to designing interfaces for cooled receivers: vacuum, cryogenic, electrical, mechanical, optical, and others required for the effective operation of the receiver,. The presented approaches to design are illustrated by a series of joint developments of the authors carried out over the past 45 years, including those produced last year.

The article presents the results of evaluating the possibility of conducting radio astronomy studies in the windows of atmospheric transparency ~100, ~230 and ~350 GHz using the optical Big Telescope Alt-Azimuthal (BTA) of the SAO RAS. A list of some promising astronomical tasks is proposed. The astroclimat conditions at the BTA site and possible optical, cryogenic and mechanical interfaces for mounting a superconducting radio receiver at the focus of the optical telescope are considered. As a receiving system, arrays of detectors cooled to ~0.3 K based on the Superconductor – Insulator – Normal metal – Insulator – Superconductor (SINIS) structure are proposed. The implementation of the project will make it possible to use the BTA site of the SAO RAS not only to solve some astronomical problems (it is possible to consider the implementation of a single observatory, the VLBI mode in the Suffa, EHT and Millimetron projects), but will also be used to test various cryogenic detectors in a real observatory.

This article presents the main results and new plans for the development of receivers which are cooled cryogenically to deep cryogenic temperatures and used in optical and radio astronomy research at the Special Astrophysical Observatory of the Russian Academy of Sciences (SAO RAS) on both the Big Telescope Alt-Azimuthal optical telescope (BTA) and the Radio Astronomical Telescope Academy of Sciences (RATAN-600) radio telescope, 600 m in diameter. These two instruments almost completely cover the frequency range from long radio waves to the IR and optical bands (0.25–8 mm on RATAN and 10–0.3 μm, on BTA) with a certain gap in the terahertz part (8–0.01 mm) of the spectrum. Today, this range is of the greatest interest for astronomers. In particular, the ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter Array) observatory and the worldwide network of modern telescopes called the EVH (Event Horizon Telescope) operate in this range. New developments at SAO RAS are aimed at mastering this part of the spectrum. Cryogenic systems of receivers in these ranges are a key element of the system and differ markedly from the cooling systems of optical and radio receivers that ensure cooling of the receivers to sub-Kelvin temperatures.

Current progress in the development of new subterahertz instruments discussed in this paper, including antennas, high-power gyrotrons, and low-noise receivers, provides a wide range of possible applications. Atmospheric absorption has now become a major limitation in the application of such high-performance subTHz systems, and the choice of the optimal location of antennas for astronomical, radar, and communication systems is important. The latest results of studying the microwave astroclimate in northern Eurasia are presented. Based on these studies, new perspectives and corrected plans for installing new antennas at the Suffa Plateau and in the Caucasus are formulated, and possible applications of new instruments such as radars for locating space debris and communication hubs for deep space communications, which are based on extremely-high-power gyrotrons and low-noise superconducting receivers, are discussed.

The first results of direct expedition measurements of atmospheric absorption of electromagnetic waves in the sub-terahertz frequency range of 0.1–1 THz, carried out in order to select an optimal site from the point of view of the microwave astroclimate for development of an observatory that can become an element of the radio interferometer of the Suffa observatory and, in the future, enter into collaboration with the Event horizon telescope (EHT), are presented in brief. The EHT, presenting an image of the shadow of a black hole, today consists of a dozen antennas located around the globe, and at present has no elements in its network in northern Eurasia. The studies performed may be useful not only for radio astronomy problems, but also for space communications, radar of the Moon, asteroids, and the detection of space debris objects. The first results of direct measurements of propagation of subterahertz waves at the selected sites confirmed the initial hypothesis of the expedition. This hypothesis was formulated on the basis of an analysis of meteorological data, as well as satellite data on atmospheric absorption in other ranges: optics and low-frequency radio bands. It was assumed that the work in the subterahertz frequency range in the eastern part of the northern Caucasus is more promising than in the western Caucasus. The western part is more attractive because today there are a number of observatories already operating, and the installation of one more antenna would have been much easier in terms of the necessary infrastructure and required highly qualified personnel. The hypothesis of the predominance of the eastern part was convincingly confirmed in the completed research by comparing the absorption in the 2- and 3-mm bands from the previously surveyed areas of the Western Caucasus (Terskol peak, Pastukhov mountain, KMO, BTA, RATAN-600 sites, etc.) with those studied during the expedition in 2021 for the Eastern sites on the Mayak (Gunib), Stolovaya, and Shalbuzdag mountains. Even measurements at the highest peak not only in the Western Caucasus, but also in Europe, at Mount Elbrus, carried out as part of this expedition, gave results worse than those in Dagestan and North Ossetia, confirming the futility of further search for a place for an effective subterahertz instrument in the eastern part of the North Caucasus.

Atmospheric modeling is used to build synthetic spectral energy distributions (SEDs) for the individual components of the speckle interferometric binary system HD375. These synthetic SEDs are combined together for the entire system and compared with its observed SED in an iterative procedure to achieve the best fit. Kurucz blanketed models and the measurements of magnitude differences were used to build these SEDs. The input physical parameters for building these best fitted synthetic SEDs represent adequately enough properties of the system. These parameters are: T _eff ^a = 6100 ± 50 K, T _eff ^b = 5940 ± 50 K, log g _a = 4.01 ± 0.10, log g _b = 3.98 ± 0.10, R _a = 1.93 ± 0.20R _⊙, R _b = 1.83 ± 0.20R _⊙, M _v ^a = 3 _· ^m 26 ± 0.40, M _v ^b = 3 _· ^m 51 ± 0.50, L _a = 4.63 ± 0.80 L _⊙, and L _b = 3.74 ± 0.70 L _⊙, in accordance with the new estimated parallax π = 12.02 ± 0.60 mas. A modified orbit of the system is built and compared with earlier orbits, and the masses of the two components are calculated as M _a = 1.35M _⊙ and M _b = 1.25M _⊙. Based on the estimated physical and geometrical parameters of the system, which are confirmed by synthetic photometry, we suggest that the two components are evolved subgiant (F8.5 IV and G0 IV) stars with the age of 3.5 Gyr, formed by fragmentation.

We succeeded in separating the absorption lines of both the primary C1 and the secondary C2 component in the spectra of the young massive binary θ ¹ OriC (O6Vp + B0V, mass sum 44 ± 7M _⊙), obtained during the period from November 1995 to February 2013 with different telescopes. These observations allowed us to derive, for the first time, the radial velocities of both components. The orbitalmotion of the secondary star is traced through its weak (the line depth is approximately 0.01–0.02) absorption lines of CII, NII, OII, Si III, which are broadened by fast rotation of the star. Silicon absorptions Si III λλ 4553, 4568, and 4575 are better suited for radial velocity measurements than the other lines. From the velocity curves, we obtained the systemic velocity of the system, γ = 31 ±2 kms⁻¹, and semi-amplitudes of the C1 and C2 velocities: K ₁ = 15 ± 2 kms⁻¹, K ₂ = 43 ± 3 kms⁻¹. This leads to individual component masses of M ₁ = 33 ± 5 M _⊙ and M ₂ = 11 ± 5 M _⊙, based on the adopted mass sum. At present, the combined spectroscopic-interferometric orbital solution cannot be obtained because of the large scatter of velocity measurements caused by chaotic line shifts in the spectrum of the primary star and by the weakness of wide absorptions from the secondary. New spectroscopy with a resolution of R ≥ 30000 and S/N ratio over 200 performed in the period close to the periastron passage in the second half of 2013, as well as additional long-baseline interferometry, will be decisive in refining the parameters of θ ¹ OriC. We expect that as a result of this campaign, masses and luminosities of the components will be determined with an accuracy of 2–3%.

The system 12 Per is a spectroscopic and speckle-interferometric binary with the components of similar spectral classes. The parameters of its orbit were determined quite accurately over nearly a century of observations. To refine the atmospheric abundances of its components and their evolutionary status, we obtained the spectra of the star in the 3500–9600 Å spectral region using the echelle spectrometers of the 6-m BTA telescope of the SAO RAS and 2-m Zeiss-2000 telescope at Terskol Peak. Based on the luminosities (L ₁ = 3.02 L _⊙, L ₂ = 1.86 L _⊙) and effective temperatures (T _eff1 = 6195 K and T _eff2 = 6000 K) we have estimated the evolutionary status of the system’s components. The age of the system is 12.1 Byr, the components are at the stage of hydrogen burning near the zero-age main sequence. The resulting element abundances in the atmospheres of 12 Per components indicate enhanced metallicity of both stars: [Fe/H] ≥ 0.35. We consider a scenario in which the initially circular short-period orbit of the pair turns into an eccentric large-period orbit due to the transfer of angular momentum of the components to the angular momentum of orbital motion over one billion years.