The most important questions in pulsar- and fast transient research (and limitations through RFI)
Journal article, 2026
Coherent emission from the magnetospheres of compact objects, such as radio pulsars and likely fast radio burst and long period transients, varies on short (fast) time scales. Observations of these sources occur primarily between 100 MHz and 10 GHz. Furthermore, particle showers from cosmic rays impacting Earth's atmosphere generate radio pulses on nanosecond-scales, which are detectable below 1 GHz. Radio frequency interference negatively impacts the science of fast transients. It can overwhelm the desired astrophysical signal, leaving the latter undetected, and introduce orders of magnitude more false positives than true positives. But most importantly, developing RFI mitigation techniques diverts person-hours away from scientific investigations of these interesting events.
radio frequency interference
fast transients
Author
Laura Spitler
Max Planck Society
Franz Kirsten
Chalmers, Space, Earth and Environment, Onsala Space Observatory
Netherlands Institute for Radio Astronomy (ASTRON)
A. Nelles
Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY)
University of Erlangen-Nuremberg (FAU)
Pei Wang
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Beijing Normal University
Sandra Savaglio
National Institute for Nuclear Physics
University of Calabria
Istituto nazionale di astrofisica (INAF)
Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union
1743-9213 (ISSN) 1743-9221 (eISSN)
Vol. 20 A32 193-196Subject Categories (SSIF 2025)
Fusion, Plasma and Space Physics
Astronomy, Astrophysics, and Cosmology
DOI
10.1017/S1743921325000043