Technosignature Searches with Real-time Alert Brokers

TL;DR

This paper explores the potential of real-time alert brokers from astronomical surveys like ZTF and LSST for technosignature searches, enabling real-time detection of extraterrestrial signals and anomalies in vast data streams.

Contribution

It demonstrates how existing alert broker platforms can be utilized for technosignature searches, proposing new workflows and methods for real-time extraterrestrial intelligence detection.

Findings

Successfully deployed optical SETI techniques using alert data.

Developed workflows integrating broker features for anomaly detection.

Outlined future enhancements for technosignature searches with upcoming surveys.

Abstract

We present an exploration of technosignature research that is possible using real-time alert brokers from surveys such as the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and the upcoming Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). Nine alert brokers currently stream up to 1 million alerts each night from ZTF, and LSST is projected to increase this volume by an order of magnitude. While these brokers are primarily designed to facilitate real-time follow-up of explosive transients such as supernovae, they offer a unique platform to discover rare forms of variability from nearby stars in real time, which is crucial for follow-up and characterization. We evaluate the capability for both spatial and temporal searches for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) methods using the currently available brokers, and present examples of technosignature searches using ZTF alert and archival data. We have deployed optical SETI techniques, such as planetary transit zone geometries and the SETI Ellipsoid. We have also developed a search for novel high-amplitude stellar dippers, and present a workflow that integrates features available directly through the brokers, as well as post-processing steps that build on the existing capabilities. Though the SETI methods that alert brokers can execute are currently limited, we provide suggestions that may enhance future technosignature and anomaly searches in the era of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory.