The CHIME Fast Radio Burst Project: System Overview

The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is a novel transit radio telescope operating across the 400-800-MHz band. CHIME is comprised of four 20-m x 100-m semi-cylindrical paraboloid reflectors, each of which has 256 dual-polarization feeds suspended along its axis, giving it a >200 square degree field-of-view. This, combined with wide bandwidth, high sensitivity, and a powerful correlator makes CHIME an excellent instrument for the detection of Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs). The CHIME Fast Radio Burst Project (CHIME/FRB) will search beam-formed, high time-and frequency-resolution data in real time for FRBs in the CHIME field-of-view. Here we describe the CHIME/FRB backend, including the real-time FRB search and detection software pipeline as well as the planned offline analyses. We estimate a CHIME/FRB detection rate of 2-42 FRBs/sky/day normalizing to the rate estimated at 1.4-GHz by Vander Wiel et al. (2016). Likely science outcomes of CHIME/FRB are also discussed. CHIME/FRB is currently operational in a commissioning phase, with science operations expected to commence in the latter half of 2018.

The CHIME/FRB Collaboration: M. Amiri, K. Bandura, P. Berger, M. Bhardwaj, M. M. Boyce, P. J. Boyle, C. Brar, M. Burhanpurkar, P. Chawla, J. Chowdhury, J. F. Cliche, M. D. Cranmer, D. Cubranic, M. Deng, N. Denman, M. Dobbs, M. Fandino, E. Fonseca, B. M. Gaensler, U. Giri, A. J. Gilbert, D. C. Good, S. Guliani, M. Halpern, G. Hinshaw, C. Hofer, A. Josephy, V. M. Kaspi, T. L. Landecker, D. Lang, H. Liao, K. W. Masui, J. Mena-Parra, A. Naidu, L. B. Newburgh, C. Ng, C. Patel, U.-L Pen, T. Pinsonneault-Marotte, Z. Pleunis, M. Rafiei Ravandi, S. M. Ransom, A. Renard, P. Scholz, K Sigurdson, S. R. Siegel, K. M. Smith, I. H. Stairs, S. P. Tendulkar, K. Vanderlinde, D. V. Wiebe

ApJ publication

arXiv:1803.11235