The CHIME/FRB Outriggers: Project Overview and Commissioning Results

Abstract: The CHIME/FRB Outriggers are a network of radio telescopes spanning continental North-America. Designed specifically for localizing fast radio bursts (FRBs) to <50 mas precision using very-long-baseline-interferometry, the Outriggers will enable the precise localization of hundreds of non-repeating FRBs, per year, once fully operational. With the recent construction of the third and final outrigger now complete, the Outriggers have officially unlocked the capability of precisely localizing non-repeating FRBs. In this talk, I will provide an overview of the CHIME/FRB Outriggers project and a summary of the first stage of commissioning. By validating astrometric performance using a sample of known sources (e.g. pulsars and continuum sources), we show that the Outriggers can achieve a localization precision of 50 mas x 100 mas for a typical FRB event. I will discuss on-going efforts and upcoming plans to improve this ability to localize FRBs to the eventual goal of 50 mas x 50 mas precision for the majority of events detected by the CHIME/FRB Outriggers. I will close by highlighting the number of early science results that have been enabled by the Outriggers.