Radio telescope computer software for detecting exotic astronomical sources that change with time

“快速射电爆发”（FRB）与遥远星系中的奇异天体有关，它们会产生突然而非常剧烈的无线电波爆发。爆炸持续不到一秒。然而，像西弗吉尼亚州的绿色银行望远镜（GBT）这样的现代射电望远镜可以探测到这些非凡的事件--如果它们配备了敏感的设备和复杂的计算机程序来分析数据的话。来自西弗吉尼亚大学和弗吉尼亚理工大学的科学家和学生（包括研究生和本科生）的合作计划为GBT开发这些项目。天文学家还不知道是什么产生了FRB。它们可能是恒星碰撞的结果，也可能是黑洞吞噬邻近恒星的结果。无论哪种方式，像GBT这样的望远镜应该会让天文学家更接近答案。近年来，无线电仪器和计算能力的革命使FRB的探测成为可能，FRB被认为是银河系外的起源，以及其他潜在的外来无线电凌日。后者导致了复杂的信号处理算法的发展。首席研究员与她的研究生和本科生以及弗吉尼亚理工大学的合作者一起工作，的目的是开发这样的算法，以期部署他们的GBT和检测无线电瞬变在真实的时间。这些技术将在GBT已经到位和运行的无线电接收器上进行原型测试;软件将与现有的数据处理系统并行运行。除了上述FRB之外，该算法还将实现对雷达和其他无线电瞬变的灵敏的宽场调查。算法和源代码将免费提供给天文学界一旦委托的GBT。PI还旨在开发“传感器阵列的统计信号处理”本科课程，以帮助更广泛的受众更容易获得该技术，并教育下一代科学家和工程师。

"Fast Radio Bursts" (FRBs) are linked to exotic astronomical objects in distant galaxies that produce a sudden and very dramatic burst of radio waves. The burst lasts a fraction of a second. Yet modern radio telescopes like the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) in West Virginia can detect these remarkable events - if they are equipped with sensitive equipment and sophisticated computer programs to analyze the data. A collaboration of scientists and students (both graduate and undergraduate) from the University of West Virginia and Virginia Tech plan to develop these programs for the GBT. Astronomers do not yet know what produces FRBs. They could be the result of colliding stars, or perhaps black holes swallowing neighboring stars. Either way, telescopes like the GBT should lead astronomers much closer to an answer.The detection of FRBs, believed to be extra-galactic in origin, and other potentially exotic radio transits, has in recent years been enabled by a revolution in radio instrumentation and computing power. The latter has lead to the development of sophisticated signal processing algorithms. The principal investigator, working with her graduate and undergraduate students and a collaborator at Virginia Tech., aims to develop such algorithms with a view to deploying them on the GBT and detecting radio transients in real time. The techniques will be prototyped on radio receivers already in place and in operation at the GBT; the software will run in parallel with existing data processing systems. The algorithms will enable sensitive, wide-field surveys of pulsars and other radio transients, in additions to the FRBs mentioned above. The algorithms and source code will be made freely available to the astronomical community once commissioned on the GBT. The PI also aims to develop a "Statistical Signal Processing for Sensor Arrays" undergraduate course to help make the technology more accessible to a wider audience and to educate the next generation of scientists and engineers.