On Detecting Interstellar Scintillation in Narrowband Radio SETI

Abstract

To date, the search for radio technosignatures has focused on sky location as a primary discriminant between technosignature candidates and anthropogenic radio frequency interference (RFI). In this work, we investigate the possibility of searching for technosignatures by identifying the presence and nature of intensity scintillations arising from the turbulent, ionized plasma of the interstellar medium (ISM). Past works have detailed how interstellar scattering can both enhance and diminish the detectability of narrowband radio signals. We use the NE2001 Galactic free electron density model to estimate scintillation timescales to which narrowband signal searches would be sensitive, and discuss ways in which we might practically detect strong intensity scintillations in detected signals. We further analyze the RFI environment of the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT) with the proposed methodology and comment on the feasibility of using scintillation as a filter for technosignature candidates.

17 pages, 8 figures, published by ApJ

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• The Breakthrough Listen Search for Intelligent Life: Technosignature Search of 97 Nearby Galaxies
• Anomaly Detection and Radio-frequency Interference Classification with Unsupervised Learning in Narrowband Radio Technosignature Searches
• Artificial Broadcasts as Galactic Populations: II. Comparing Individualist and Collective Bounds on Broadcast Populations in Single Galaxies
• Flickers, Bursts, and Dips: Detecting Rapid Variability with the g(2) Autocorrelation Function
• Artificial Broadcasts as Galactic Populations: III. Constraints on Radio Broadcasts from the Cosmic Population of Inhabited Galaxies