Intermittent Signals and Planetary Days in SETI

TL;DR

This paper explores how intermittent interstellar signals, influenced by planetary rotation and transmission strategies, affect SETI detection efforts, suggesting that extended observations are crucial for identifying such signals.

Contribution

It proposes that planetary rotation constrains signal intermittency and that observing strategies should include extended monitoring to detect these signals effectively.

Findings

Intermittent signals can be power-efficient for interstellar communication.

Planetary rotation may cause signals to have a cadence of 10-25 hours.

Extended observations improve detection of intermittent signals.

Abstract

Interstellar signals might be intermittent for many reasons, such as targeted sequential transmissions, or isotropic broadcasts that are not on continuously, or many other reasons. The time interval between such signals would be important, because searchers would need to observe for long enough to achieve an initial detection and possibly determine a period. This article suggests that: (1) the power requirements of interstellar transmissions could be reduced by orders of magnitude by strategies that would result in intermittent signals, and (2) planetary rotation might constrain some transmissions to be intermittent and in some cases to have the period of the source planet, and (3) signals constrained by planetary rotation might often have a cadence in the range of 10-25 hours, if the majority of planets in our solar system are taken as a guide. Extended observations might be needed to detect intermittent signals and are rarely used in SETI but are feasible, and seem appropriate when observing large concentrations of stars or following up on good candidate signals.