A Pilot ALFA Survey for Fast Radio Bursts from the Virgo Cluster

Home , NGC 4262, NGC 4450, NGC 4527, NGC 4536, NGC 4550, NGC 4571

Proposal Identiﬁcation No.: P3080 Date Received: 2016-Mar-03 10:15:14 Arecibo Observatory William E. Gordon Telescope Observing Time Request COVER SHEET

Section I - General Information Submitted for Mar 1 2016. This proposal has not been submitted before. Proposal Type: Regular General Category: Pulsars Observation Category: FRB Time Requested this semester: 75 Hours already used for this project: 0 Additional Hours required to complete project: Minimum Useful Time: Expected Data Storage: over 500 GB

Proposal Title: A Pilot ALFA Survey for Fast Radio Bursts from the Virgo Cluster ABSTRACT: Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are one of the most exciting astronomical discoveries of the last decade. It is essential to find a larger number and to have a good localization in order to understand their nature and to fully exploit their potential. We aim to perform a pilot survey targeting the 22 brightest star-forming galaxies in the Virgo Cluster. Recent studies like our discovery of a repeating FRB (Spitler et al. 2016, Nature, DOI:10.1038/nature17168) suggest that at least some FRBs originate from young, energetic, and/or highly magnetized neutron stars. If so, then their dispersion measures may be dominated by material close to the source, placing them at 10s of Mpc as opposed to much larger, cosmological distances. We will survey Virgo using Arecibo’s unparalleled sensitivity and the same observing setup that identified the first repeating FRB. Even in the event of a non-detection, the proposed pilot survey can give statistical limits on the number of FRBs per galaxy.

Outreach Abstract: Fast Radio Bursts are astronomical radio ﬂashes likely originating from other galaxies and carrying a tremendous energy within a short time. There are currently only around 20 FRBs known, and their physical nature remains a mystery. By detecting and localizing many more FRBs, it will be possible to answer important questions in Astronomy (e.g. probe the intergalactic material and magnetic ﬁelds), Cosmology (e.g. missing baryons and dark energy) and Physics (e.g. testing General Relativity and Standard Model). Recent studies suggest that they originate in regions where young stars are present. Therefore, we aim to observe one of the places in the observable Universe where the star birth rate is highest. To this end, we selected a sample of the most promising galaxies within the nearby Virgo Cluster that we want to search for bursts using the biggest and most sensitive single-dish telescope on Earth: Arecibo.

1 Name Institution E-mail Phone Student Daniele Michilli University of Ams- [email protected] +31 G terdam / ASTRON (0)630645104 Jason WT Hessels University of Ams- [email protected] +31 no terdam / ASTRON (0)610260062

Additional Authors

Paul Scholz (McGill) PALFA Tier 1 survey members ALFABURST Team

This work is part of a PhD thesis.

Remote Observing Request

Observer will travel to AO X Remote Observing In Absentia (instructions to oper- ator)

Section II - Time Request

The following times are in LST. For these observations night-time is not needed.

Begin – End Days Needed at Interval–Interval This Interval 11:15 – 13:30 33 – – –

Time Constraints (Must Be Justiﬁed in the Proposal Text) No constraints on the cadence

Section III - Instruments Needed

ALFA

2 Atmospheric Observation Instruments:

Special Equipment or setup: none

Section IV - RFI Considerations

Frequency Ranges Planned

This proposal requires Iridium RFI protection at 1612 MHz between 10pm and 6am EST. This proposal requires coordination with Punta Salinas radar within the band 1222-1381 MHz.. This proposal requires coordination with GPS L3 at 1381 MHz.

Section V - Observing List

Target List

M98 12h13.8’ +14deg54’ NGC 4216 12h15.9’ +13deg09’ M99 12h18.8’ +14deg25’ NGC 4262 12h19.5’ +14deg53’ M61 12h21.9’ +04deg28’ M100 12h22.9’ +15deg49’ M85 12h25.4’ +18deg11’ NGC 4435 12h27.7’ +13deg05’ NGC 4438 12h27.8’ +13deg01’ NGC 4450 12h28.5’ +17deg05’ M88 12h32.0’ +14deg25’ NGC 4526 12h32.0’ +07deg42’ NGC 4527 12h34.1’ +02deg39’ NGC 4536 12h34.4’ +02deg11’ M91 12h35.4’ +14deg30’ NGC 4550 12h35.5’ +12deg13’ NGC 4567 12h36.5’ +11deg15’ NGC 4568 12h36.6’ +11deg14’ NGC 4571 12h36.9’ +14deg13’ M58 12h37.7’ +11deg49’ NGC 4651 12h43.7’ +16deg24’ NGC 4654 12h43.9’ +13deg08’