Parkes observations for project P892 semester 2017APRS_BPSR_20

SUPERBx is an extension to the SUPERB survey which looks at the highest Galactic latitudes in a search for fast radio bursts (FRBs). We will focus our efforts at high Galactic latitudes where our previous work has shown FRB detectability to be as much as 4 times higher than in the plane. SUPERBx uses optimised GPU codes to search for pulsars and fast radio bursts (FRBs), making discoveries in real time. Handling our data as it comes in is essential for the SKA Phase I era so this work applies directly to the high-data rates of next generation telescopes. The FRBs discovered (we have already discovered four FRBs in this project) will have much more associated information than all previous detections. Firstly our discovery lag is ~1 second, rather than months/years. The Parkes observations will be shadowed by other radio telescopes (in particular the refurbished Molonglo which has now reached a level of performance where it has independently discovered 3 FRBs in 2016) to allow localisation of the discovered FRBs, and a host of optical and high-energy telescopes will then be triggered as appropriate. This is key for identifying FRB host galaxies, so as to solve the mystery of their progenitors and to exploit their many uses as tools for precision cosmology measurements.

SUPERBx是SUPERB巡天项目的扩展，旨在通过观测银道高纬度区域搜寻快速射电暴（FRBs）。我们将重点聚焦银道高纬度区域——此前研究表明，该区域的FRB探测效率比银道面高出近4倍。SUPERBx采用优化的GPU代码搜寻脉冲星与FRBs，实现实时发现。实时处理流入数据对于平方公里阵列射电望远镜（SKA）第一阶段至关重要，因此本工作可直接适配下一代望远镜的高数据率需求。本项目已发现4个FRBs，这些新发现的射电暴将携带比以往探测更多的关联信息。首先，其发现延迟仅约1秒，远低于以往的数月甚至数年。帕克斯望远镜的观测将得到其他射电望远镜的同步辅助——尤其是经过翻新的莫隆格洛望远镜，其性能已达独立探测水平（2016年曾独立发现3个FRBs）——以实现对新发现射电暴的定位；随后将酌情触发一系列光学及高能望远镜进行后续观测。这对于确定FRBs的宿主星系至关重要，进而有助于解开其起源之谜，并将其作为精密宇宙学测量工具加以利用。