Searching for giga-Jansky fast radio bursts from the Milky Way with a global array of low-cost radio receivers

TL;DR

This paper proposes a novel, low-cost global network of radio receivers, including cell phones and SDR devices, to detect and localize fast radio bursts originating within the Milky Way, leveraging citizen science and triangulation.

Contribution

It introduces a new method for detecting Galactic FRBs using a worldwide array of inexpensive, widely available radio receivers, including mobile phones and SDRs, with potential for precise localization.

Findings

Conceptual framework for a global FRB detection network.

Use of existing mobile and SDR hardware for astronomical observations.

Potential for arc-second localization of Galactic FRBs.

Abstract

If fast radio bursts (FRBs) originate from galaxies at cosmological distances, then their all-sky rate implies that the Milky Way may host an FRB on average once every 30-1500 years. If FRBs repeat for decades or centuies, a local FRB could be active now. A typical Galactic FRB would produce a millisecond radio pulse with ~1 GHz flux density of ~3E10 Jy, comparable to the radio flux levels and frequencies of cellular communication devices (cell phones, Wi-Fi, GPS). We propose to search for Galactic FRBs using a global array of low-cost radio receivers. One possibility is to use the ~1GHz communication channel in cellular phones through a Citizens-Science downloadable application. Participating phones would continuously listen for and record candidate FRBs and would periodically upload information to a central data processing website, which correlates the incoming data from all participants, to identify the signature of a real, globe-encompassing, FRB from an astronomical distance. Triangulation of the GPS-based pulse arrival times reported from different locations will provide the FRB sky position, potentially to arc-second accuracy. Pulse arrival times from phones operating at diverse frequencies, or from an on-device de-dispersion search, will yield the dispersion measure (DM) which will indicate the FRB source distance within the Galaxy. A variant of this approach would be to use the built-in ~100 MHz FM-radio receivers present in cell phones for an FRB search at lower frequencies. Alternatively, numerous "software-defined radio" (SDR) devices, costing ~$10 US each, could be plugged into USB ports of personal computers around the world (particularly in radio quiet regions) to establish the global network of receivers.