Artist’s impression of CSIRO’s Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope observing ‘fast radio bursts’ in ‘fly’s eye mode’. Each antenna points in a slightly different direction, giving maximum sky coverage. Credit: OzGrav, Swinburne University of Technology
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration extragalactic transient events, so powerful that they can be detected after travelling more than half the age of the Universe to reach Earth. Currently, the origin of FRBs is unknown, although lead theories include young, rapidly rotating, and highly magnetised neutron stars; and the merger of compact objects such as a neutron star and a white dwarf. Critically, the frequency dependent time-delay induced as an FRB passes through ionised gas measures the total column density of that gas. Known as the ‘dispersion measure’ (DM), this delay allows FRBs to be used as probes of the structure of matter in the Universe.
The ‘CRAFT’ Collaboration uses the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope to detect FRBs, determine their direction of origin, and study the properties of their emission down to nanosecond timescales. To interpret FRB data, we have developed the “zDM” code, allowing studies of the cosmological evolution of the FRB population, the fraction that repeat, and their energy distribution; and also the distribution of matter in the Universe, and to independently determine cosmological parameters.
The aim of this project is to use a world-leading code titled “zDM” to model FRB data from international experiments such as CHIME, DSA, FAST, and MeerTRAP as well as ASKAP to determine the detailed structure of matter in the Universe, and the properties of the FRB population. The exact target of the research is to be determined during the project, but possibilities include: What is the intrinsic distribution of FRB host galaxies, and how does FRB repetition bias our observations of it? Do FRBs trace star-formation, or is there a delay before FRBs become active? What is the maximum energy of FRBs, and do they all repeat?
| Student attributes | |
| Academic background | Any STEM |
| Computing skills | None – python will be taught during the project |
| Training requirement |
| Project timeline | |
| Week 1 | Inductions and project introduction |
| Week 2 | Initial presentation |
| Week 3 | Introduction to FRBs |
| Week 4 | Introduction to zDM code |
| Week 5 | Begin adaptation of code to new data |
| Week 6 | Finalise adaptation of code |
| Week 7 | Test results with new data |
| Week 8 | Final results with new data |
| Week 9 | Final presentation |
| Week 10 | Final report |