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The Breakthrough Listen Search for Intelligent Life: MeerKAT Target Selection

Authors :
Czech, Daniel
Isaacson, Howard
Pearce, Logan
Cox, Tyler
Sheikh, Sofia
Brzycki, Bryan
Buchner, Sarah
Croft, Steve
DeBoer, David
DeMarines, Julia
Drew, Jamie
Gajjar, Vishal
Lacki, Brian
Lebofsky, Matt
MacMahon, David H. E.
Ng, Cherry
de Pater, Imke
Price, Danny C.
Siemion, Andrew P. V.
Van Rooyen, Ruby
Worden, S. Pete
Publication Year :
2021

Abstract

New radio telescope arrays offer unique opportunities for large-scale commensal SETI surveys. Ethernet-based architectures are allowing multiple users to access telescope data simultaneously by means of multicast Ethernet subscriptions. Breakthrough Listen will take advantage of this by conducting a commensal SETI survey on the MeerKAT radio telescope in South Africa. By subscribing to raw voltage data streams, Breakthrough Listen will be able to beamform commensally anywhere within the field of view during primary science observations. The survey will be conducted with unprecedented speed by forming and processing 64 coherent beams simultaneously, allowing the observation of several million objects within a few years. Both coherent and incoherent observing modes are planned. We present the list of desired sources for observation and explain how these sources were selected from the Gaia DR2 catalog. Given observations planned by MeerKAT's primary telescope users, we discuss their effects on the commensal survey and propose a commensal observing strategy in response. Finally, we outline our proposed approach towards observing one million nearby stars and analyse expected observing progress in the coming years.

Details

Database :
arXiv
Publication Type :
Report
Accession number :
edsarx.2103.16250
Document Type :
Working Paper
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1088/1538-3873/abf329