Reduced-resolution beamforming: Lowering the computational cost for pulsar and technosignature surveys
Abstract
In radio astronomy, the science output of a telescope is often limited by computational resources. This is especially true for transient and technosignature surveys that need to search high-resolution data across a large parameter space. The tremendous data volumes produced by modern radio array telescopes exacerbate these processing challenges. Here, we introduce a `reduced-resolution' beamforming approach to alleviate downstream processing requirements. Our approach, based on post-correlation beamforming, allows sensitivity to be traded against the number of beams needed to cover a given survey area. Using the MeerKAT and Murchison Widefield Array telescopes as examples, we show that survey speed can be vastly increased, and downstream signal processing requirements vastly decreased, if a moderate sacrifice to sensitivity is allowed. We show the reduced-resolution beamforming technique is intimately related to standard techniques used in synthesis imaging. We suggest that reduced-resolution beamforming should be considered to ease data processing challenges in current and planned searches; further, reduced-resolution beamforming may provide a path to computationally expensive search strategies previously considered infeasible.
- Publication:
-
Publications of the Astronomical Society of Australia
- Pub Date:
- May 2024
- DOI:
- 10.1017/pasa.2024.35
- arXiv:
- arXiv:2402.12723
- Bibcode:
- 2024PASA...41...37P
- Keywords:
-
- Radio telescopes;
- astronomical techniques;
- pulsars;
- technosignatures;
- search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI);
- Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics;
- Astrophysics - High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
- E-Print:
- 11 pages, 5 figures. Accepted to PASA