Detection Rates for Surveys for Fast Transients With Next Generation Radio Arrays

Macquart, Jean–Pierre

doi:10.1088/0004-637x/734/1/20

Cited by 17 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…A key result in Macquart (2011) is that FoV is more strongly preferred over sensitivity when scatter broadening or volume boundary limits increase d. Further modelling of the directional dependence of d is shown in that paper. The total number of events detected in a transients survey is proportional to R n t, where t is the total observation time.…”

Section: Application To Galactic Populationsmentioning

confidence: 89%

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Searching for Fast Radio Transients with SKA Phase 1

Colegate¹,

Clarke²

2011

Publ. – Astron. Soc. Aust

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Abstract:The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) provides an excellent opportunity for low-cost searches for fast radio transients. The increased sensitivity and field of view of the SKA compared with other radio telescopes will make it an ideal instrument to search for impulsive emission from high-energy density events. We present a high-level search 'use case' and propose event rate per unit cost as a figure of merit to compare transient survey strategies for radio telescope arrays; we use event rate per beam formed and searched as a first-order approximation of this measure. Key results are that incoherent (phase-insensitive) combination of antenna signals achieves the highest event rate per beam, and that 50-100 MHz processed bandwidth is sufficient for extragalactic searches with SKA Phase 1; the gain in event rate from using the full available bandwidth is small. Greater system flexibility will enable more effective searches, but need not drive the top-level system requirements beyond those already proposed for the SKA. The most appropriate search strategy depends on the observed sky direction and the source population; for SKA Phase 1, low-frequency aperture arrays tend to be more effective for extragalactic searches, and dishes more effective for directions of increased scatter broadening, such as near the Galactic plane.

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Section: Application To Galactic Populationsmentioning

confidence: 89%

“…Note that it is conceivable that a spigot to the AA-low elemental antenna signals could also exist, but the data rates make this option prohibitively expensive for SKA1. Macquart (2011); the derivation is shown in Appendix B.…”

Section: Fast Transients Search Use Casementioning

confidence: 99%

Searching for Fast Radio Transients with SKA Phase 1

Colegate¹,

Clarke²

2011

Publ. – Astron. Soc. Aust

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“…There is a more detailed discussion of some of the computing requirements presented in Smits et al [1]. Discussions on how to further make optimizations between sensitivity and field of view for transient searches, using the different observing modes, such as sub-arraying, fly's eye and trading beams for bandwidth, are presented in Colegate & Clarke [2] and Macquart [3].…”

Section: The Square Kilometre Arraymentioning

confidence: 99%

The square kilometre array and the transient universe

Stappers

2013

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A.

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The square kilometre array (SKA) is a next generation radio telescope that will be built in southern Africa and Australasia. It will be built in two phases and will use a range of detectors, from aperture arrays to dishes, to span the frequency range from a few tens of megahertz to a few gigahertz. The combination of great sensitivity, wide field of view and unprecedented computing power mean that the SKA will be an excellent instrument for studying the transient radio universe. Transient radio emission is generated in extremes of: gravitational and magnetic fields, velocity, temperature, pressure and density. While we know about plenty of source classes for this type of short duration radio emission, there is still a large range of transient parameter space that has not yet been sampled owing to the limitations of current generation radio telescopes.

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“…The formalism involving event rate as a figure of merit has been set out by Macquart [4]. It relates the expected detection rate by a telescope with particular key characteristics (notably limiting sensitivity and FoV) to the properties of a cosmic population of fast transient sources.…”

Section: Event Ratesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The normalized event rate in the Galaxy as a function of Galactic position for a hypothetical population of transients [4]. The plot is colour coded according to the log 10 of the event rate.…”

Section: Figurementioning

confidence: 99%

SKA Studies of the Radio Transient Universe

Hall¹,

Colegate²,

Macquart³

et al. 2012

Proceedings of Resolving the Sky - Radio Interferometry: Past, Present and Future — PoS(RTS2012)

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The SKA is likely to produce transformational insights into the fast transient Universe. So little is currently known about this observational window that much of the SKA time domain science program has been lumped into the "exploration of the unknown" theme. Unsurprisingly, no clarity has hitherto emerged on the associated operational or architectural requirements. However, with the recent advent of highly-capable Pathfinders and new programs targeted at exploring key system design questions, insights into these and other critical issues are emerging. Newly-optimized signal combination strategies for large-N arrays, cost effective hardware processing methods, and improved signal detection and localization algorithms are all being refined and implemented on test platforms. Somewhat unexpectedly, the power of SKA-low as a fast transients instrument has recently become evident. This paper reviews a new detectionrate metric developed at ICRAR/Curtin, summarizes the present state of transients surveys, predicts SKA performance, and outlines important messages for the SKA project -particularly the SKA1 system design now underway.Resolving the Sky -Radio Interferometry: Past, Present and Future

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Detection Rates for Surveys for Fast Transients With Next Generation Radio Arrays

Cited by 17 publications

References 26 publications

Searching for Fast Radio Transients with SKA Phase 1

Searching for Fast Radio Transients with SKA Phase 1

The square kilometre array and the transient universe

SKA Studies of the Radio Transient Universe

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