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Abstract The Breakthrough Listen search for intelligent life is, to date, the most extensive technosignature search of nearby celestial objects. We present a radio technosignature search of the centers of 97 nearby galaxies, observed by Breakthrough Listen at the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope. We performed a narrowband Doppler drift search using theturboSETIpipeline with a minimum signal-to-noise parameter threshold of 10, across a drift rate range of ±4 Hz s−1, with a spectral resolution of 3 Hz and a time resolution of ∼18.25 s. We removed radio frequency interference (RFI) by using an on-source/off-source cadence pattern of six observations and discarding signals with Doppler drift rates of 0. We assess factors affecting the sensitivity of the Breakthrough Listen data reduction and search pipeline using signal injection and recovery techniques and apply new methods for the investigation of the RFI environment. We present results in four frequency bands covering 1–11 GHz, and place constraints on the presence of transmitters with equivalent isotropic radiated power on the order of 1026W, corresponding to the theoretical power consumption of Kardashev Type II civilizations.
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A VERITAS/Breakthrough Listen Search for Optical Technosignatures
Abstract The Breakthrough Listen Initiative is conducting a program using multiple telescopes around the world to search for “technosignatures”: artificial transmitters of extraterrestrial origin from beyond our solar system. The Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) Collaboration joined this program in 2018 and provides the capability to search for one particular technosignature: optical pulses of a few nanoseconds in duration detectable over interstellar distances. We report here on the analysis and results of dedicated VERITAS observations of Breakthrough Listen targets conducted in 2019 and 2020 and of archival VERITAS data collected since 2012. Thirty hours of dedicated observations of 136 targets and 249 archival observations of 140 targets were analyzed and did not reveal any signals consistent with a technosignature. The results are used to place limits on the fraction of stars hosting transmitting civilizations. We also discuss the minimum pulse sensitivity of our observations and present VERITAS observations of CALIOP: a space-based pulsed laser on board the Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations. The detection of these pulses with VERITAS, using the analysis techniques developed for our technosignature search, allows a test of our analysis efficiency and serves as an important proof of principle.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2209437 1913552 2110737 2310028 2011361 2110497 1914579 2200857 2111531 2310158 2012916 2110974 2011420
- PAR ID:
- 10437546
- Author(s) / Creator(s):
- ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; more »
- Publisher / Repository:
- DOI PREFIX: 10.3847
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The Astronomical Journal
- Volume:
- 166
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 0004-6256
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: Article No. 84
- Size(s):
- Article No. 84
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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