Flyer for the ATNf Colloquium by Di Li, 22 Jan 2025

A Tale of Two Surveys: Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST Survey (CRAFTS) and Cosmic Antennae (CA)

Di Li (Tsinghua University)


Abstract:
As first large-scale simultaneous survey of HI and pulsars, the Commensal Radio Astronomy FAST Survey (CRAFTS) has covered ~5000 d^2 of the northern sky, roughly 25% of the sky visible to FAST. CRAFTS has discovered more than 200 new pulsars, 10 new FRBs, and released 4738 d^2 publication quality HI cubes, with close to 1% calibration. CRAFTS revealed a FRB event rate at more than 120 K per day per full sky, much more than previously realized. Such dynamic sky provides incentive for all sky radio monitor. Motivated by Ron Ekers’ PAF concept, we have developed the Cosmic Antennae phase-field imager explorer, expecting first light in the coming months. This first generation CA will cover 600 MHz to 1.8 GHz with 112 probes x 2 polarizations, resulting in a data rate close 1TB/s. The expected bursts detection rate will be about 1 per day. The next step will be fully deploying expanded CA, aiming for instantaneously localization.