LOFT-e: Localisation Of Fast Transients with e-MERLIN
Abstract
The majority of fast radio bursts (FRBs) are poorly localised, hindering their potential scientific yield as galactic, intergalactic, and cosmological probes. LOFT-e, a digital backend for the U.K.'s e-MERLIN seven-telescope interferometer will provide commensal search and real-time detection of FRBs, taking full advantage of its field of view (FoV), sensitivity, and observation time. Upon burst detection, LOFT-e will store raw data offline, enabling the sub-arcsecond localisation provided by e-MERLIN and expanding the pool of localised FRBs. The high-time resolution backend will additionally introduce pulsar observing capabilities to e-MERLIN.
- Publication:
-
Pulsar Astrophysics the Next Fifty Years
- Pub Date:
- August 2018
- DOI:
- 10.1017/S1743921317010377
- arXiv:
- arXiv:1804.01904
- Bibcode:
- 2018IAUS..337..422W
- Keywords:
-
- fast radio bursts;
- techniques: interferometric;
- e-MERLIN;
- Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- 2 pages, no figures, prepared for Proceedings of IAU Symposium 337: Pulsar Astrophysics - The Next 50 Years at Jodrell Bank Observatory, UK (September 4 - 8 2017)