The most sensitive SETI observations toward Barnard's star with FAST

TL;DR

This study uses the highly sensitive FAST radio telescope to search for narrow-band technosignatures from Barnard's star, setting new observational limits despite not detecting any signals.

Contribution

It demonstrates the application of FAST with multi-beam coincidence matching for SETI observations toward Barnard's star, the closest star in its observable sky.

Findings

No evidence of radio technosignatures was found.

Established upper limits on possible extraterrestrial signals.

Predicted characteristics of potential ETI signals based on star properties.

Abstract

Search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) has been mainly focused on nearby stars and their planets in recent years. Barnard's star is the second closest star system to the sun and the closest star in the FAST observable sky which makes the minimum Equivalent Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) required for a hypothetical radio transmitter from Barnard's star to be detected by FAST telescope a mere 4.36x10^8 W. In this paper, we present the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST) telescope as the most sensitive instrument for radio SETI observations toward nearby star systems and conduct a series of observations to Barnard's star (GJ 699). By applying the multi-beam coincidence matching (MBCM) strategy on the FAST telescope, we search for narrow-band signals (~Hz) in the frequency range of 1.05-1.45 GHz, and two orthogonal linear polarization directions are recorded. Despite finding no evidence of radio technosignatures in our series of observations, we have developed predictions regarding the hypothetical extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) signal originating from Barnard's star. These predictions are based on the star's physical properties and our observation strategy.