Ultra Fast Astronomy: Optimized Detection of Multimessenger Transients

TL;DR

Ultra Fast Astronomy leverages advanced detector technology to detect optical transients on nanosecond to millisecond scales, enabling new insights into energetic cosmic events and potential extraterrestrial signals.

Contribution

The paper introduces optimized detection strategies for ultra-fast optical transients, combining analytic and numerical methods to enhance observational efficiency and scientific return.

Findings

Optimized observation resource allocation for short-duration transients

Analytic and numerical methods improve detection probability

Information matrix analysis constrains burst delay and flash duration relations

Abstract

Ultra Fast Astronomy is a new frontier becoming enabled by improved detector technology allowing discovery of optical transients on millisecond to nanosecond time scales. These may reveal counterparts of energetic processes such as fast radio bursts, gamma ray bursts, gravitational wave events, or play a role in the optical search for extraterrestrial intelligence (oSETI). We explore some example science cases and their optimization under constrained resources, basically how to distribute observations along the spectrum of short duration searches of many targets or long searches over fewer targets. As a demonstration of the method we present some analytic and some numerical optimizations, of both raw detections and science characterization such as an information matrix analysis of constraining a burst delay -- flash duration relation.