COSMIC’s Large-scale Search for Technosignatures during the VLA Sky Survey: Survey Description and First Results
Developing algorithms to search through data efficiently is a challenging part of searching for signs of technology beyond our solar system. We have built a digital signal processing system and computer cluster on the backend of the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico in order to sea...
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| Format: | Article |
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IOP Publishing
2025-01-01
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| Series: | The Astronomical Journal |
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| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad9ea5 |
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| author | C. D. Tremblay J. Sofair L. Steffes T. Myburgh D. Czech P. B. Demorest R. A. Donnachie A. W. Pollak M. Ruzindana Siemion A. P. V. S. S. Varghese S. Z. Sheikh |
| author_facet | C. D. Tremblay J. Sofair L. Steffes T. Myburgh D. Czech P. B. Demorest R. A. Donnachie A. W. Pollak M. Ruzindana Siemion A. P. V. S. S. Varghese S. Z. Sheikh |
| author_sort | C. D. Tremblay |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Developing algorithms to search through data efficiently is a challenging part of searching for signs of technology beyond our solar system. We have built a digital signal processing system and computer cluster on the backend of the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico in order to search for signals throughout the Galaxy consistent with our understanding of artificial radio emissions. In our first paper, we described the system design and software pipelines. In this paper, we describe a postprocessing pipeline to identify persistent sources of interference, filter out false positives, and search for signals not immediately identifiable as anthropogenic radio frequency interference during the VLA Sky Survey. As of 2024 September 1, the Commensal Open-source Multi-mode Interferometric Cluster had observed more than 950,000 unique pointings. This paper presents the strategy we employ when commensally observing during the VLA Sky Survey and a postprocessing strategy for the data collected during the survey. To test this postprocessing pipeline, we searched toward 511 stars from the Gaia catalog with coherent beams. This represents about 30 minutes of observation during the VLA Sky Survey, where we typically observe about 2000 sources hr ^–1 in the coherent beamforming mode. We did not detect any unidentifiable signals, setting isotropic power limits ranging from 10 ^11 to 10 ^16 W. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-8eacadf4d22f47b18d0fe3cdad47f343 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1538-3881 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | The Astronomical Journal |
| spelling | doaj-art-8eacadf4d22f47b18d0fe3cdad47f3432025-02-05T08:20:33ZengIOP PublishingThe Astronomical Journal1538-38812025-01-01169312210.3847/1538-3881/ad9ea5COSMIC’s Large-scale Search for Technosignatures during the VLA Sky Survey: Survey Description and First ResultsC. D. Tremblay0https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4409-3515J. Sofair1https://orcid.org/0009-0002-0688-513XL. Steffes2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9512-5492T. Myburgh3https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0804-9362D. Czech4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8071-6011P. B. Demorest5https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6664-965XR. A. Donnachie6https://orcid.org/0009-0001-8677-372XA. W. Pollak7https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3430-7671M. Ruzindana8https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9473-9652Siemion A. P. V.9https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2828-7720S. S. Varghese10https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2669-0364S. Z. Sheikh11https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7057-4999SETI Institute , 339 Bernardo Avenue, Suite 200, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; Berkeley SETI Research Center , University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USALafayette College , Department of Physics, Easton, PA 18045, USA; National Radio Astronomy Observatory , 1003 Lopezville Road, Socorro, NM 87801, USABerkeley SETI Research Center , University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; University of Wisconsin–Madison , Department of Astronomy, 475 North Charter Street, Madison, WI 53703, USASETI Institute , 339 Bernardo Avenue, Suite 200, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; Mydon Solutions (Pty) Ltd. , 102 Silver Oaks, 23 Silverlea Road, Wynberg, Cape Town, 7800, South AfricaBerkeley SETI Research Center , University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USANational Radio Astronomy Observatory , 1003 Lopezville Road, Socorro, NM 87801, USASETI Institute , 339 Bernardo Avenue, Suite 200, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; Mydon Solutions (Pty) Ltd. , 102 Silver Oaks, 23 Silverlea Road, Wynberg, Cape Town, 7800, South AfricaSETI Institute , 339 Bernardo Avenue, Suite 200, Mountain View, CA 94043, USABerkeley SETI Research Center , University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USASETI Institute , 339 Bernardo Avenue, Suite 200, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; Breakthrough Listen , University of Oxford, Department of Physics, Denys Wilkinson Building, Keble Road, Oxford, OX1 3RH, UKSETI Institute , 339 Bernardo Avenue, Suite 200, Mountain View, CA 94043, USASETI Institute , 339 Bernardo Avenue, Suite 200, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; Berkeley SETI Research Center , University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USADeveloping algorithms to search through data efficiently is a challenging part of searching for signs of technology beyond our solar system. We have built a digital signal processing system and computer cluster on the backend of the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in New Mexico in order to search for signals throughout the Galaxy consistent with our understanding of artificial radio emissions. In our first paper, we described the system design and software pipelines. In this paper, we describe a postprocessing pipeline to identify persistent sources of interference, filter out false positives, and search for signals not immediately identifiable as anthropogenic radio frequency interference during the VLA Sky Survey. As of 2024 September 1, the Commensal Open-source Multi-mode Interferometric Cluster had observed more than 950,000 unique pointings. This paper presents the strategy we employ when commensally observing during the VLA Sky Survey and a postprocessing strategy for the data collected during the survey. To test this postprocessing pipeline, we searched toward 511 stars from the Gaia catalog with coherent beams. This represents about 30 minutes of observation during the VLA Sky Survey, where we typically observe about 2000 sources hr ^–1 in the coherent beamforming mode. We did not detect any unidentifiable signals, setting isotropic power limits ranging from 10 ^11 to 10 ^16 W.https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad9ea5GPU computingAstrobiologySearch for extraterrestrial intelligence |
| spellingShingle | C. D. Tremblay J. Sofair L. Steffes T. Myburgh D. Czech P. B. Demorest R. A. Donnachie A. W. Pollak M. Ruzindana Siemion A. P. V. S. S. Varghese S. Z. Sheikh COSMIC’s Large-scale Search for Technosignatures during the VLA Sky Survey: Survey Description and First Results The Astronomical Journal GPU computing Astrobiology Search for extraterrestrial intelligence |
| title | COSMIC’s Large-scale Search for Technosignatures during the VLA Sky Survey: Survey Description and First Results |
| title_full | COSMIC’s Large-scale Search for Technosignatures during the VLA Sky Survey: Survey Description and First Results |
| title_fullStr | COSMIC’s Large-scale Search for Technosignatures during the VLA Sky Survey: Survey Description and First Results |
| title_full_unstemmed | COSMIC’s Large-scale Search for Technosignatures during the VLA Sky Survey: Survey Description and First Results |
| title_short | COSMIC’s Large-scale Search for Technosignatures during the VLA Sky Survey: Survey Description and First Results |
| title_sort | cosmic s large scale search for technosignatures during the vla sky survey survey description and first results |
| topic | GPU computing Astrobiology Search for extraterrestrial intelligence |
| url | https://doi.org/10.3847/1538-3881/ad9ea5 |
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