Parkes observations for project P892 semester 2017OCTS_BPSR_21

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 3 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 five 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) 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巡天的扩展项目，其观测聚焦于银道面高纬度区域，用于搜寻快速射电暴（fast radio bursts, FRBs）。我们将研究重点置于高银纬区间——过往研究表明，该区域的快速射电暴可探测率较银道面高出多达3倍。SUPERBx采用优化后的图形处理器（Graphics Processing Unit, GPU）代码开展脉冲星与快速射电暴搜寻工作，可实时实现探测发现。在平方公里阵列（Square Kilometre Array, SKA）第一阶段观测时代，实时处理流入的观测数据至关重要，因此本项目的技术方案可直接适配下一代望远镜的高数据率观测需求。本项目已发现的快速射电暴（目前已在本项目中探测到5例）将附带远多于此前所有探测案例的关联信息：其一，本项目的发现延迟仅约1秒，而非数月乃至数年。帕克斯（Parkes）望远镜的观测将与其他射电望远镜（尤其是经过翻新的莫隆格洛（Molonglo）望远镜——其当前性能已使其独立探测到3例快速射电暴）形成协同观测覆盖，以实现对已发现快速射电暴的精确定位；随后将根据实际观测需求触发一系列光学与高能望远镜开展后续观测。这一流程对于识别快速射电暴的宿主星系至关重要，进而可破解其前身天体的起源之谜，并充分利用其作为精密宇宙学测量工具的诸多应用价值。