A Radio Burst Detection Method Based on the Hough Transform

Abstract

We present a simple and fast method for incoherent dedispersion and fast radio burst (FRB) detection based on the Hough transform, which is widely used for feature extraction in image analysis. The Hough transform maps a point in the time-frequency data to a straight line in the parameter space, and points on the same dispersed $f^{-2}$ curve to a bundle of lines all crossing at the same point, thus the curve is transformed to a single point in the parameter space, enabling an easier way for the detection of radio burst. By choosing an appropriate truncation threshold, in a reasonably radio quiet environment, i.e. with radio frequency interferences (RFIs) present but not dominant, the computing speed of the method is very fast. Using simulation data of different noise levels, we studied how the detected peak varies with different truncation thresholds. We also tested the method with some real pulsar and FRB data.

arXiv comment11 pages, 10 figures, substantially revised. Version accepted by MNRAS

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Cited by in corpus (1)

• A Fast Transient Backend to Detect FRBs with the Tianlai Dish Pathfinder Array