Oral Presentation
Initial results of the Very Large Baseline Interferometry capabilities of BURSTT
Presenter: Sridhar Gajendran (National Tsing Hua University/NTHU)
The Bustling Universe Radio Survey Telescope in Taiwan (BURSTT) is a radio telescope dedicated to detecting and characterizing fast radio bursts (FRBs). FRBs are short-duration (typically a few milliseconds) radio bursts at cosmological distances. Research into understanding the origins, mechanisms, and applications of FRBs is one of the rapidly evolving areas in astrophysics currently. One of the main challenges in FRB research is the lack of accurate localization for the detected events, which is crucial to understanding their progenitors. Previously, the most successful Canadian CHIME telescope only had 7' localization accuracy. BURSTT is Taiwan's attempt at building a dedicated telescope for FRB research to achieve sub-arcsecond localization (x40-fold increase). With its extremely wide field of view (~10000 sq. degrees) and high sensitivity, BURSTT explores a unique realm of observation. The current BURSTT-256 is expected to detect ~100 new FRBs per year. To achieve such localization accuracy, the interferometric operation is a must. In this talk, we will present the Very Large Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) capabilities of BURSTT and report on our initial results of cross-correlation between BURSTT and the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), India (baseline distance: 4798 km). The VLBI capabilities of BURSTT allow it to achieve ~ 30 milli-arcsecond localization of the detected FRB events, comparable to other major global FRB telescopes.
asiaa.sinica.edu.tw