Science with the Canadian Large Adaptive Reflector

Canadian scientists and engineers are developing a prototype radio telescope using a novel concept that will permit very large aperture antennas to be constructed at a fraction of current costs. At a diameter of about 200 m, the Canadian Large Adaptive Reflector (CLAR) will be the largest fully steerable radio telescope in the world. At short cm wavelengths it will yield a factor of four improvement in collecting area over that currently available. The use of cooled phased-array feed systems at the prime focus of the CLAR will make it an unprecedented powerful instrument for deep, wide-field, spectral imaging. The CLAR is under development as part of Canada’s participation in a cooperative international research and development program leading to the Square Kilometre Array (SKA). Until construction of the SKA, the CLAR will provide our most sensitive view of the radio Universe. Canadian scientists will have access to a unique facility that will allow the pursuit of world-leading scientific investigations that will not otherwise be possible. In this document we illustrate the capabilities of the CLAR in example investigations, including a complete survey of the structure and kinematics of the local Universe, a study of the origins of star formation using cm-wave molecular lines to map the gravitational collapse of pre-protostellar clouds, a project to detect several thousand new pulsars and explore their physics through sensitive timing analysis, and ultra-sensitive VLBI observations to probe the circumnuclear environments of galactic nuclei and the early development of energetic radio outburst phenomena in galaxy cores and stellar systems.