DiFX-2: A More Flexible, Efficient, Robust, and Powerful Software Correlator

By A. Deller, Walter Brisken, C. Phillips, J. Morgan, W. Alef, R. Cappallo, E. Middelberg, J. Romney, H. Rottmann, Steven J. Tingay and 1 more. 2011

394 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Software correlation, where a correlation algorithm written in a high-level language such as C++ is run on commodity computer hardware, has become increasingly attractive for small- to medium-sized and/or bandwidth-constrained radio interferometers. In particular, many long-baseline arrays (which typically have fewer than 20 elements and are restricted in observing bandwidth by costly recording hardware and media) have utilized software correlators for rapid, cost-effective, correlator upgrades to allow compatibility with new, wider-bandwidth, recording systems and to improve correlator flexibility. The DiFX correlator, made publicly available in 2007, has been a popular choice in such upgrades and is now used for production correlation by a number of observatories and research groups worldwide. Here, we describe the evolution in the capabilities of the DiFX correlator over the past three years, including a number of new capabilities, substantial performance improvements, and a large amount of supporting infrastructure to ease use of the code. New capabilities include the ability to correlate a large number of phase centers in a single correlation pass, the extraction of phase-calibration tones, correlation of disparate but overlapping sub-bands, the production of rapidly sampled filter-bank and kurtosis data at minimal cost, and many more. The latest version of the code is at least 15% faster than the original (and in certain situations, many times this value). Finally, we also present detailed test results validating the correctness of the new code.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Environmental Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bcdb181e575bd3c0cb63d511dfd43115b50cd267

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Citations in the corpus

The Structure and Dynamics of the Subparsec Jet in M87 Based on 50 VLBA Observations over 17 Years at 43 GHz (2018, methodology): “A new Distributed FX (DiFX) software correlator that provides significantly enhanced capabilities (Deller et al. 2011) began operation in time to be used for our 2010 and later epochs.”
The Murchison Widefield Array: The Square Kilometre Array Precursor at Low Radio Frequencies (2012, methodology): “The recorded voltages can be correlated using existing software correlation solutions, such as DiFX (Deller et al. 2011, 2007).”
First Sagittarius A* Event Horizon Telescope Results. IV. Variability, Morphology, and Black Hole Mass (2022, methodology): “ALMA recorded using linear feeds, and the data were later converted to a circular polarization basis during the DiFX (Deller et al. 2011) correlation (Martí-Vidal et al. 2016; Matthews et al. 2018; Goddi et al. 2019).”
MOJAVE. XV. VLBA 15 GHz Total Intensity and Polarization Maps of 437 Parsec-scale AGN Jets from 1996 to 2017 (2017, methodology): “This work made use of the Swinburne University of Technology software correlator (Deller et al. 2011), developed as part of the Australian Major National Research Facilities Programme and operated under licence.”
MOJAVE. X. PARSEC-SCALE JET ORIENTATION VARIATIONS AND SUPERLUMINAL MOTION IN ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI (2013, methodology): “This work made use of the Swinburne University of Technology software correlator (Deller et al. 2011), developed as part of the Australian Major National Research Facilities Programme and operated under licence.”
MOJAVE. XIII. PARSEC-SCALE AGN JET KINEMATICS ANALYSIS BASED ON 19 YEARS OF VLBA OBSERVATIONS AT 15 GHz (2016, methodology): “This work made use of the Swinburne University of Technology software correlator (Deller et al. 2011), developed as part of the Australian Major National Research Facilities Programme and operated under licence.”