Collaborative Research: Completing the Most Sensitive Low-frequency Survey for Radio Pulsars and Transients

两所大学的科学家将在波多黎各合作，用射电望远镜研究天空。他们的项目将寻找在时间尺度上的快速无线电波长变化，这将表明发现了毫秒脉冲星。这样的脉冲星可以精确计时，以便能够探测到引力波。此外，其他新发现的射电可变源还将揭示其他有趣的天文天体。波多黎各的高中生将参与分析这些数据。乔治梅森大学和西弗吉尼亚大学的一个研究小组将在高时间节奏下观察从阿雷西博天文台可以看到的整个夜空。主要的科学目标是发现毫秒脉冲星，这些脉冲星将添加到NANOGrav脉冲星计时阵列中，用于纳赫兹引力波探测和由此产生的对质量更高的黑洞双星的探测。使用适当搜索参数的模拟估计，全面调查将发现20-30毫秒脉冲星和150-200颗正常脉冲星。经过良好测试的软件流水线，以及利用现代归纳机器学习算法的候选分类工具，将确保数据处理分析将迅速进行。这项调查还将允许探索来自宇宙距离的快速射电爆发和高亮度毫秒级射电爆发。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Scientists at two universities will work together to study the sky with a radio telescope in Puerto Rico. Their project will look to find rapid radio wavelength variations on timescales that would indicate the discovery of millisecond pulsars. Such pulsars can then be precisely timed to allow the detection of gravitational waves. Additionally, other newly discovered radio variable sources will reveal other interesting astronomical objects. Puerto Rican high school students will be involved in analyzing the data.A research team at George Mason University and West Virginia University will observe the entire night sky visible from the Arecibo Observatory at high time cadence. The primary science goal is to discover millisecond pulsars that will add to the NANOGrav pulsar timing array for nanohertz gravitational wave detection and the resultant probing of black hole binaries with much higher masses. Simulations using suitable search parameters estimate that the full survey will discover 20-30 millisecond pulsars and 150-200 normal pulsars. A well-tested software pipeline, and candidate classification tools that utilize modern inductive machine learning algorithms, will ensure that the data processing analysis will proceed swiftly. The survey will also allow exploration of fast radio bursts, and high brightness millisecond-duration radio bursts coming from cosmological distances.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.