Daily Image
08-09-2015
Feasibility test of FRB searching and localization with the EVN
| Submitter: | Zhigang Wen |
| Description: | My name is Zhigang Wen, and I am a Ph.D. student from Xinjiang Astronomical Observatory, China. This summer, I worked at JIVE on Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) searching and localization with the European VLBI Network (EVN). I was honored very much to be under instruction of five supervisors: Zsolt Paragi, Aard Keimpema, Andrew Siemion, Sander ter Veen and Mike Garrett. FRBs are intense bursts of radio emission that have durations of milliseconds and exhibit the characteristic dispersion sweep of radio pulsars. The origin and progenitor of FRBs are unknown. They are generally thought to be extragalactic because of the very high observed dispersion measure. The EVN would be a powerful instrument to prove their extragalactic origin by precise localization, to ensure that FRBs can be used as cosmological probes. During my summer internship, I reduced data of six pulsars and two Rotating Radio Transients (RRATs) obtained from phase-referencing VLBI observations. The positions were determined by imaging the single pulses. The pulsar test data showed that individual pulses could be localized at the few tens to 100 milliarcsecond accuracy level. We then imaged the brightest of the 7 pulses we found for RRAT J1819-1458. For the first time, we determined its position well below arcsecond accuracy using radio interferometry data. Our summer work provided technical and methodical preparation for FRBs searching and localization with EVN. The image shows two bursts at a DM of 196 pc/cm^3. The bottom panel shows the time-series after de-dispersion. I would like to thank my supervisors, fellow summer students and everyone else at ASTRON and JIVE for their kind help and making this summer experience incredible and unforgettable. |
| Copyright: | JIVE |
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