MRI: Development of a CHIME Outrigger Telescope

加拿大氢强度测绘实验(CHME)突出望远镜将被用来精确定位来自遥远星系的数千次明亮射电闪光的位置。这些快速射电爆发(FRB)是有史以来在天空中看到的最明亮的来源之一，但它们的来源仍然是一个谜。新的望远镜将通过与半个大陆之外的现有CHINE望远镜合作，对震源位置进行三角测量。目前，大多数FRB的位置都非常不精确，天文学家甚至不知道它们来自哪个星系。Outrigger将解决这个问题，确定特定的星系，并将更进一步，将源定位到该星系内的特定区域。FRB之所以有趣，是因为产生闪光的极端物理。此外，探测到的爆发无线电波已经通过电离宇宙结构传播了数十亿年。每一次爆发都带有几个在凌日过程中留下印记的不同的可测量信号，为研究宇宙提供了独特的新工具。突出望远镜计划将增加美国在这一令人兴奋的新领域的参与，并培训下一代年轻科学家使用这种新型仪器。突出望远镜将允许使用甚长基线干涉测量(VLBI)技术在基线方向上实现毫角秒角分辨率。我们将开发的望远镜将由一个60米长、20米宽的圆柱体组成，位于绿岸天文台(WV)。焦点线将配备128个覆盖400-800 MHz频段的双极化四叶草天线。使用该阵列执行非定向VLBI需要一个能够存储和处理来自所有256个射频频道的TB级数据的数据记录器，为此，我们将部署一个基于内存的带触发读出的环形缓冲区。这一开发计划将使以后能够建造更多的外伸支架，允许更清晰地定位射电爆发，并将为未来建造更大的低成本、高通量望远镜铺平道路，用于更先进的瞬变搜索和强度测绘工作。该计划将在美国最重要的射电天文台之一建立数字驱动的凌日望远镜方面的专业知识。Outrigger还将用作一个独立的望远镜，用作支持该项目更广泛影响方面的扩展和教育平台。该项目由MPS/AST、既定的激励竞争研究计划(EPSCoR)和OIA/MRI计划联合资助。该奖项反映了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。

The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) Outrigger Telescope will be used to pinpoint the location of thousands of bright radio flashes coming from far off galaxies. These Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are among the brightest sources ever seen on the sky, but their origin remains a mystery. The new telescope will triangulate source positions by working with the existing CHIME telescope, half a continent away. Currently, most FRB positions are so imprecise that astronomers don’t even know which galaxy they came from. The Outrigger will solve that problem, determining the particular galaxy, and will go further, localizing the source to a specific region within that galaxy. FRBs are interesting because of the extreme physics that creates the flash. In addition, the burst radio waves detected have travelled for billions of years through ionized cosmic structure. Each burst carries several distinct measurable signals imprinted during transit, providing unique new tools to study the cosmos. The CHIME Outrigger program will increase US participation in this exciting new area, and train the next generation of young scientists in this novel type of instrumentation.The Outrigger telescope will allow use of very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) techniques to achieve milli-arcsecond angular resolution in the baseline direction. The telescope we will develop will consist of a single 60 m long by 20 m wide cylinder located at the Green Bank (WV) Observatory. The focal line will be outfitted with 128 dual-polarized quad-clover antennas covering the 400-800 MHz band. Performing untargeted VLBI with this array requires a data recorder capable of storing and processing terabytes of data from all 256 radio-frequency channels, for which we will deploy a memory-based ring buffer with triggered readout. This development program will enable additional outriggers to be built later, allowing even sharper localization of radio bursts, and will pave the way for future construction of larger low-cost, high-throughput telescopes for more advanced transient searches and Intensity Mapping efforts. The program will build expertise in digitally-driven transit telescopes at one of the premier radio observatories in the US. The Outrigger also will serve as a standalone telescope used as an outreach and education platform supporting the broader impacts aspects of this project.This project is jointly funded by MPS/AST, the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and the OIA/MRI Program.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.