Astronomical Radio Transients Experiment (ARTE)

Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs,) are extraordinary astrophysical phenomena, consisting of short pulses lasting only a few milliseconds, but that may exceed the power of 500 million suns. While their nature is largely unknown they seem to be frequent, with all-sky rates estimates ranging from hundreds to thousands detectable events per day.

The history of Gamma Ray Bursts (GRB) suggests that there may be a class of radio bursts which are not as luminous as FRBs but have a much higher volumetric rate. Furthermore, an FRB occurring in the Milky Way would be an extremely bright event, detectable with small antennas. The STARE-2 experiment has been observing for more than 400 days in search for FRBs in the Milky Way. It detected many solar bursts, and one FRB associated with the known galactic magnetar SGR 1935+2154 [2020]. We aim to design and operate an improved version of the STARE-2 experiment by implementing an antenna array with a beam pattern matching the Milky Way angular distribution, therefore improving sensitivity for galactic sources while reducing Radio Frequency Interference (RFI). We also plan to triple STARE-2 bandwidth from 188 MHz to ~600 MHz, implement digital Direction of Arrival (DoA) finding, and Radio Frequency Interference (RFI) mitigation techniques.