快速射电暴实时搜寻技术研究

快速射电暴(FRB)是宇宙中新发现的一类复现概率极低的神秘脉冲暴发,其物理尚不清楚。对它的研究面临样本数目少(仅16例)、缺少暴发后及时观测信息(仅1例有)等困难。FRB实时搜寻可有效解决上述困难。因为它节约硬盘，可长期不断地执行搜寻任务，其在线警报功能也保证了后续观测的及时安排。但FRB实时搜寻面临各种挑战。本课题依托上海天马射电望远镜平台，对FRB实时搜寻所面临的挑战开展针对性技术攻关，主要包括：①FRB实时搜寻软、硬件平台搭建；②实时消除射电干扰技术；③GPU和CPU协同并行加速消色散技术及算法；④备选体智能认证技术。为了提高开发效率并保证系统的智能性和可移植性,我们将调用最近流行的“开放式计算语言”(OpenCL)和“面向天文研究的机器学习和数据挖掘软件库”(AstroML)。最终实现该平台对FRB实时搜寻的目标。本项目将为后续多波束接收机及望远镜阵列的FRB实时搜寻积累经验。

The Fast Radio Burst (FRB) is one kind of mysterious pulse bursts in the universe discovered in recent years. The reproduction probability of the FRB is extremely low. We are still puzzled about its physical nature. The research on the FRB faces some difficulties, such as very small number (only 16 cases) of FRBs known, few (only 1 case) following up observation information. The real-time FRB searches can solve the difficulties mentioned above. If the real-time FRB searches are used, the data recording hard disk space can be saved greatly, which makes it is possible to discover more cases of FRBs by all-day ceaseless monitoring the universe. On the other hand, follow-up observations can also be arranged on time under the help of real-time FRB search techniques. But it is not easy to carry out real-time FRB searches, as many challenges should be faced. Under the support of the platform of the Shanghai TianMa Radio Telescope, we will do a deep study on how to overcome the challenges in FRB searches in this project, including: (1) techniques on how to build the real-time FRB searching software and hardware platform; (2) techniques on how to eliminate radio interference in real-time;( 3) parallel accelerate dispersion techniques and related algorithms using GPU together with CPU; (4) how to use the pattern recognition techniques to identify the real FRB signals. In order to improve the efficiency of software development and make sure its intelligence and portability, we will call the “Open Computing Language” (OpenCL) and “Machine Learning for Astronomy ” (AstroML) libraries. Ultimately, we will build a platform that can be used to do the real-time FRB searches. This project will provide valuable experience on carrying out FRB real-time searches with the multi-beam receiver and the antenna array in the future.