The BINGO Project

IX. Search for fast radio bursts – A forecast for the BINGO interferometry system^★

¹ Unidade Acadêmica de Física, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, R. Aprígio Veloso, Bodocongó, 58429-900 Campina Grande, PB, Brazil
e-mail: marcelo.santos@df.ufcg.edu.br
² Instituto de Física, Universidade de São Paulo, R. do Matão, 1371 Butantã, 05508-09 São Paulo, SP, Brazil
e-mail: ghoerning@usp.br
³ Technische Universität München, Physik-Department T70, James-Franck-Strasse 1, 85748, Garching, Germany
⁴ Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, University of Portsmouth, Dennis Sciama Building, Portsmouth PO1 3FX, UK
e-mail: ricardo.landim@port.ac.uk
⁵ Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais, Av. dos Astronautas 1758, Jardim da Granja, São José dos Campos, SP, Brazil
⁶ University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT, UK
⁷ Department of Physics and Electronics, Rhodes University, PO Box 94, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa
⁸ Center for Gravitation and Cosmology, College of Physical Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, PR China
⁹ School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai 200240, PR China
¹⁰ Centro de Gestão e Estudos Estratégicos, SCS, Qd 9, Lote C, Torre C s/n Salas 401 a 405, 70308-200 Brasília, DF, Brazil
¹¹ Instituto de Física, Universidade de Brasília, Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro, 70910-900 Brasília, DF, Brazil
¹² Department of Astronomy, School of Physical Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, PR China
¹³ CAS Key Laboratory for Research in Galaxies and Cosmology, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, PR China
¹⁴ School of Astronomy and Space Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, PR China
¹⁵ Unidade Acadêmica de Engenharia Elétrica, Universidade Federal de Campina Grande, R. Aprígio Veloso, Bodocongó, 58429-900 Campina Grande, PB, Brazil
¹⁶ Shanghai Astronomical Observatory, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200030, PR China
¹⁷ ASTRON, the Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy, Oude Hoogeveensedijk 4, 7991 PD Dwingeloo, The Netherlands
¹⁸ College of Science, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 211106, PR China

Received: 17 May 2023
Accepted: 1 November 2023

Abstract

Context. The Baryon Acoustic Oscillations (BAO) from Integrated Neutral Gas Observations (BINGO) radio telescope will use the neutral hydrogen emission line to map the Universe in the redshift range 0.127 ≤ z ≤ 0.449, with the main goal of probing BAO. In addition, the instrument’s optical design and hardware configuration support the search for fast radio bursts (FRBs).

Aims. In this work, we propose the use of a BINGO Interferometry System (BIS) including new auxiliary, smaller radio telescopes (hereafter outriggers). The interferometric approach makes it possible to pinpoint the FRB sources in the sky. We present the results of several BIS configurations combining BINGO horns with and without mirrors (4 m, 5 m, and 6 m) and five, seven, nine, or ten for single horns.

Methods. We developed a new Python package, the <mono>FRBlip</mono>, which generates mock catalogs of synthetic FRB and computes, based on a telescope model, the observed signal-to-noise ratio, which we use to numerically compute the detection rates of the telescopes and how many interferometry pairs of telescopes (baselines) can observe an FRB. The FRBs observed by more than one baseline are the ones whose location can be determined. We thus evaluated the performance of BIS regarding FRB localization.

Results. We found that BIS would be able to localize 23 FRBs yearly with single horn outriggers in the best configuration (using ten outriggers of 6-m mirrors), with redshift z ≤ 0.96. The full localization capability depends on the number and type of the outriggers. Wider beams are best for pinpointing FRB sources because potential candidates will be observed by more baselines, while narrow beams search deep in redshift.

Conclusions. The BIS can be a powerful extension of the BINGO telescope, dedicated to observe hundreds of FRBs during Phase 1. Many of FRBs will be well localized with a single horn and a 6-m dish as outriggers.