Project area/S
- Extragalactic Radio Science / Fast Transients and Pulsars
Project Details
Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are extremely powerful radio transients, so luminous they are visible across the Universe, which occur within mere milliseconds. Yet, to date the origin of FRBs is not yet known.
To best address this, we need to better understand the host galaxies FRBs reside in, through localisation of their radio signal. The Commensal Real-time ASKAP Fast Transients Survey (CRAFT) with the Australia Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) is expected to localize ~1 FRB every two days, and hence will have a large catalogue of host galaxies to analyse and follow-up with multiwavelength data.
In this project the student will analyse existing radio and other multiwavelength information of FRB host galaxies, as well as new 3 ns resolution data of the FRB emission, uniquely available to CRAFT, to combine with our knowledge of the host galaxy to understand the medium the FRB signal propagates through. As the FRB field is evolving rapidly, the exact details of the project will depend on recent developments.
Student Attributes
Academic Background
Physics; some astrophysics (preferred but not necessary)
Computing Skills
Some experience in coding, e.g. in Python (preferred but not necessary)
Training Requirement
Latex, accessing and working with supercomputers (e.g. Pawsey)
Project Timeline
- Week 1 Inductions and project introduction
- Week 2 Initial Presentation
- Week 3 Learning on FRBs and host galaxy properties
- Week 4 Extracting multiwavelength data for sample of localized FRBs
- Week 5 Learning to work with the high time resolution data
- Week 6 Running analysis on the high time resolution data
- Week 7 Searching for correlations between the high time resolution data and multiwavelength properties of host galaxy
- Week 8 Searching for correlations between the high time resolution data and multiwavelength properties of host galaxy
- Week 9 Final Presentation
- Week 10 Final Report
An image of a galaxy with the location of a FRB localized by CRAFT
