Detection of Fast Radio Bursts from Cosmic Radio Sources with Arecibo and the Green Bank Telescope

West Virginia University Research Corporation, Morgantown WV

Investigators

Abstract

1. Violent, explosive events throughout the Universe often produce relatively brief signals that astronomers detect. A huge, abrupt increase in brightness accompanies a supernova explosion that completely destroys the star. The brief ?chirp? of gravitational radiation detected by the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory in September 2015 came from the merger of two massive black holes. And in 2007, a ?chirp? of radio emission lasting a few thousandths of a second signaled the discovery of a previously unknown class of astronomical object. Astronomers think that this and other so-called ?Fast Radio Bursts? (FRBs) originate in distant galaxies far out in the Universe. To find out what are the sources of the FRBs, astronomers need to discover many more examples, determine their properties, and if possible identify them with events observed in other ways. This project will deploy radio detectors at the 1000-foot-diameter radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, and at the Green Bank Telescope in West Virginia. The detectors will conduct automated searches for FRBs and communicate the discoveries within minutes to enable follow-up observations. The scientists will also share their results to the general public through a public website, a 3D video, and planetarium programs. Even their undergraduate students will help. They will convey the excitement of research in radio astronomy to more than 3,600 K-12 students each year. 2. A bright millisecond radio burst discovered in 2007 indicated the existence of a previously unknown population of radio sources. Recent discoveries of more of these Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) has confirmed the existence of this population, which has been hailed as one of the most important discoveries in radio astronomy in recent decades. With typical durations of a few milliseconds, FRBs are strongly dispersed in frequency, suggesting an extragalactic origin. The primary goal of this project is to deploy autonomous dedicated detectors at the Arecibo radio telescope in Puerto Rico and at the Green Bank Telescope to search for more of these transient events across large swaths of the sky, to make the detections rapidly available (within minutes) for follow-up observations at other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum and in gravitational-wave data, and to record and characterize the properties of these detections. The Principal Investigators anticipate finding dozens of FRBs each year as well as possibly discovering bursting Galactic neutron stars and possibly completely new classes of transient radio sources. The Principal Investigators also have an extensive and well-developed plan to employ their research for broader societal impacts. These include a public website for rapid dissemination of their results to non-scientists, presentations about radio astronomy by undergraduates to more than 3,600 K-12 students per year, and the development of a 3D video about the research that has strong potential to grab the public interest and teach the public about science through astronomy.