SETI in the Spatio-Temporal Survey Domain

A short lunch talk I gave to the DIRAC Institute at the University of Washington's Department of Astronomy. Here I discuss the paper I recently submitted to the Astronomical Journal (AJ) on using modern wide field, time domain surveys to carry out a new generation of SETI or "Technosignature" work.

Transcript

1. SETI in the Spatio-Temporal Survey Domain James R. A. Davenport (UW) jradavenport arxiv.org/abs/1907.04443
2. 2 jradavenport arxiv.org/abs/1907.04443 #1. Optical Surveys can do SETI TESS LSST Soap Box: We need more literature on possible ideas/signals
3. 3 jradavenport arxiv.org/abs/1907.04443 #1. Optical Surveys can do SETI TESS LSST Opportunity: Search Algorithms are Portable & Extensible!
4. 4 jradavenport arxiv.org/abs/1907.04443 #2. Surveys might be Good at SETI As with all astrophysics: surveys can dominate if you frame your science question the right way
5. Needle in an N-Dimensional Haystack e.g. see Wright, Kanodia, & Lubar (2018) integration time area sensitivity transmitter strength distance signal cadence/time polarization modulation bandwidth 5 jradavenport arxiv.org/abs/1907.04443
6. jradavenport 6 Typical Radio SETI e.g. see Wright, Kanodia, & Lubar (2018) “Haystack” Volume arxiv.org/abs/1907.04443 Needle in an N-Dimensional Haystack
7. jradavenport 7 arxiv.org/abs/1907.04443 Needle in an N-Dimensional Haystack Traditional Radio SETI Optical Survey SETI e.g. see Wright, Kanodia, & Lubar (2018)
8. 8 jradavenport arxiv.org/abs/1907.04443 #3. Trivial Example(s) What kinds of signals are we considering? Examples utilizing both the spatial and temporal domains https://arxiv.org/abs/1812.08681
9. 9 Dyson sphere? jradavenport
10. 10 “Boyajian’s star” 20% flux dips! Kepler 1-2% variation Ground-based Kepler slow 3% fade jradavenport
11. 11 Simulated VASCO Data Time Flux Time (decades) Flux e.g. Villarroel et al. (2016) jradavenport VASCO:
 Vanishing & Appearing Sources over a Century of Observations *this team interested in ZTF forced phot for validation!
12. 12 jradavenport Transits - an energy efficient beacon? orbital phase residual L. Arnold (2005) Weird transit shapes from artificial objects Coordinated in time, Porb, or space?
13. 13 jradavenport Missing Transits D. Kipping & A. Teachey (2016) “Laser cloaking” Time Flux ?
14. 14 jradavenport arxiv.org/abs/1907.04443 #3. Trivial Example(s) Clusters of Similarity e.g. spatial clustering of exoplanet transit periods Could be any clustering! arbitrary distribution function
15. 15 jradavenport arxiv.org/abs/1907.04443 #3. Trivial Example(s) Recipe 1. Large sample of exoplanet properties 2. K-nearest clustering 3. Search for outliers
16. 16 jradavenport arxiv.org/abs/1907.04443 #4. Future Directions
17. 17 Fl295 - Own work, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3734115 jradavenport Searching for Lighthouses
18. jradavenport 18 Searching for Lighthouses Repeating, non-periodic patterns Fibonacci pulses NEW https://github.com/TheAstroFactory/SDM
19. 19 jradavenport Phase Phase Fibonacci: Wrong Timescale Correct Timescale Repeating, non-periodic patterns Flux https://github.com/TheAstroFactory/SDM
20. 20 jradavenport Timescale Pattern Start Time Repeating, non-periodic patterns IT WORKS! But, it’s slow (obv) https://github.com/TheAstroFactory/SDM
21. 21 jradavenport #4. Future Directions Search for clusters or outliers in N-dimensional properties
22. 22 jradavenport arxiv.org/abs/1907.04443 #4. Future Directions #3. Trivial Example(s) #2. Surveys might be Good at SETI #1. Optical Surveys can do SETI