Establish a common direction-dependent IXR benchmark across radio telescopes

Establish a common direction-dependent intrinsic cross-polarisation ratio benchmark across radio-telescope facilities using metric-, frequency-, and calibration-matched comparisons.

Background

The paper derives the intrinsic cross-polarisation ratio (IXR) from the condition number of the direction-dependent Jones matrix and uses it to quantify the stability of polarisation recovery across the GRAO 32-m telescope’s primary beam. It compares the resulting intrinsic electromagnetic quantities with published polarimetric measurements from facilities including Effelsberg, Parkes, Arecibo, the DRAO Synthesis Telescope, and MeerKAT.

Because existing studies use different metrics, observing frequencies, angular regions, and calibration procedures, the reported values are not directly comparable. The unresolved issue is the absence of a common benchmark that would permit robust cross-facility assessment of direction-dependent polarimetric conditioning.