On the Breakthrough Listen search for signs of intelligent life near the Galactic center
- Paper number
IAC-19,A4,1,3,x53288
- Author
Dr. Vishal Gajjar, United States, University of California, Berkeley
- Coauthor
Dr. Andrew Siemion, United States, Univerisity of California
- Coauthor
Dr. David DeBoer, United States, UC Berkeley
- Coauthor
Dr. Daniel Price, United States, U.C. Berkeley
- Coauthor
Mr. J. Emilio Enriquez, United States, UC Berkeley / Radboud University Nijmegen
- Coauthor
Dr. Dan Werthimer, United States, University of California
- Coauthor
Dr. Steve Croft, United States, University California Berkeley
- Coauthor
Mr. Jamie Drew, United States, NASA
- Coauthor
Dr. Pete Worden, United States
- Coauthor
Ms. Karen Perez, United States, Columbia University
- Year
2019
- Abstract
Over the last decade, discoveries of numerous earth type exoplanets have extended the possibility of other life-bearing worlds. However, the question of the existence of intelligent life might remain elusive unless a dedicated attempt is made to extensively Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). The Breakthrough Listen (BL) is a 10-year effort to conduct the most sensitive, comprehensive, and intensive search for advanced intelligent life on other worlds ever performed. The Galactic Center (GC) is a key observational target for the radio component of the BL program. The line of sight toward the GC offers the largest integrated galactic star count of any direction in the sky, is a widely cited possible location for beacon builtby an advanced intelligence and is the most energetic region in the Milky Way. Given the potential for discovery in the GC region, the BL survey will cover the entire frequency range from 700 MHz to 100 GHz using the Green Bank Telescope (GBT) and Parkes Telescope. We plan to conduct deep observations of around 350 hours from the GBT and 280 hours from the Parkes telescope; making it the most significant SETI survey to date of any region of the sky. The GC region is also an exciting observational target for a host of natural astrophysical phenomena, prominently including pulsars in close orbits around the central super-massive black hole, Sgr A∗, or in new exotic systems such as a millisecond pulsar in a binary system with a black hole. Other astrophysics of interest include accelerated masers, spectral line surveys, and studies of the detailed structure of the dense ionized Interstellar Medium (ISM) in the GC. I will review these observation strategies and novel data analysis techniques we plan to deploy to investigate a range of signal types using state-of-the-art machine learning tools.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-19,A4,1,3,x53288.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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