*To join this seminar, attendees will need to request Zoom connection details from headsec@stat.ubc.ca.
Post-seminar Q&A: Graduate students are invited to stay after the seminar for a Q&A session with the speaker (~12pm–12:30pm).
Abstract: The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME) is a radio-telescope array located at the Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO) near Penticton, BC. CHIME’s novel, digitally-driven design, combined with a massive processing capacity built from consumer computer hardware, make it a versatile instrument that can be used in a variety of astrophysical experiments.
In this talk, I will give an overview of CHIME, with a focus on the CHIME/FRB experiment. Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) are millisecond-duration flashes of radio-frequency signal with unknown extra-galactic origins. CHIME/FRB’s realtime processing pipeline enabled us to expand the sample of known FRBs by order of magnitude within a couple of years of its construction, gathering important insights into their characteristics and likely origins.