The localization of single pulse in VLBI observation

TL;DR

This paper introduces a VLBI-based method for localizing single pulses, such as FRBs, using astrometric solving, achieving comparable accuracy to radio imaging with lower computational cost.

Contribution

It develops a new localization technique for single pulses in VLBI data using astrometric solving, enhancing detection and localization efficiency.

Findings

Localization results are consistent within 3 sigma with radio imaging.

The method achieves comparable accuracy with fewer baselines and shorter integration times.

The pipeline 'VOLKS' is publicly available and computationally efficient.

Abstract

In our previous work, we propose a cross spectrum based method to extract single pulse signals from RFI contaminated data, which is originated from geodetic VLBI postprocessing. This method fully utilizes fringe phase information of the cross spectrum and hence maximizes signal power, however the localization was not discussed in that work yet. As the continuation of that work, in this paper, we further study how to localize single pulses using astrometric solving method. Assuming that the burst is a point source, we derive the burst position by solving a set of linear equations given the relation between residual delay and offset to a priori position. We find that the single pulse localization results given by both astrometric solving and radio imaging are consistent within 3 sigma level. Therefore we claim that it is possible to derive the position of a single pulse with reasonable precision based on only 3 or even 2 baselines with 4 milliseconds integration. The combination of cross spectrum based detection and the localization proposed in this work then provide a thorough solution for searching single pulse in VLBI observation. According to our calculation, our pipeline gives comparable accuracy as radio imaging pipeline. Moreover, the computational cost of our pipeline is much smaller, which makes it more practical for FRB search in regular VLBI observation. The pipeline is now publicly available and we name it as "VOLKS", which is the acronym of "VLBI Observation for frb Localization Keen Searcher".