Pulsar Signal Processing Instrumentation for the CHIME Telescope

我们建议建立一个实时数字信号处理仪器来观测射电脉冲星，使用一个新的射电望远镜，目前正在彭蒂克顿，不列颠哥伦比亚省：cfi资助的加拿大氢强度测绘实验（CHIME）。虽然这台新的射电望远镜是为了宇宙学目的而建造的，但它也有潜力成为脉冲星天体物理学的世界级仪器，因为它的收集面积大，无线电带宽宽。然而，脉冲星观测的时域信号处理要求与CHIME将建立的非常不同。在这里，我们建议为CHIME建立一个脉冲星处理仪器，使其能够做世界领先的独特的脉冲星科学。在许多其他脉冲星应用中，拟议的设备将支持涉及毫秒射电脉冲星长期高精度定时的实验，目标是在纳赫兹引力波的背景下探测或设置有趣的上限。据预测，由于超大质量黑洞的合并，这种波将遍布宇宙。CHIME有可能将毫秒脉冲星的计时精度提高两倍，这将大大加速引力波探测。我们建议用商品零件建造一台仪器，首先利用目前正在建造的CHIME探路者望远镜的无线电输出，用于测试和中等科学目的，然后在全CHIME上使用，以便每年365天，每天24小时同时对多达10颗脉冲星进行计时。

We propose to build a real-time digital signal processing instrument to observe radio pulsars using a novel radio telescope currently being built in Penticton, BC: the CFI-funded Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME). Although this new radio telescope is being built for cosmology purposes, it also has the potential to be a world-class instrument for pulsar astrophysics, given its large collecting area and wide radio bandwidth. However, the time-domain signal processing requirements for pulsar observations are very different from what will be built for CHIME. Here we propose to build a pulsar processing instrument for CHIME that will enable it to do world-leading unique pulsar science. Among many other pulsar applications, the proposed equipment will support experiments involving long-term high-precision timing of millisecond radio pulsars, with the goal of detecting or setting interesting upper limits on a background of nanohertz gravitational waves. Such waves are predicted to pervade the Universe due to supermassive black hole mergers. CHIME has the potential to improve the timing precision of millisecond pulsars by up to a factor of two, which will greatly accelerate gravitational-wave detection. We propose to build an instrument out of commodity parts to first tap off the radio output of the CHIME pathfinder telescope currently being built, for testing and modest science purposes, and subsequently for use on full CHIME, in order to time up to 10 pulsars simultaneously, 24-hr per day, 365 days per year.