SPOTLIGHT: A Probe of the Fast Radio Transient Sky

Abstract

SPOTLIGHT is a time-domain survey instrument to perform a real-time commensal search for Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) and Pulsars with a PetaFlop system installed at the GMRT funded under the National Supercomputing Mission (NSM). The system executes real-time HPC and AI applications to ensure simultaneous time-domain detection and arc-second imaging localisation of the detected bursts across the GMRT observing band. With an unprecedented sensitivity, SPOTLIGHT is expected to find hundreds of FRBs with possible host galaxy associations, allowing the use of the bursts as cosmological probes. The AI-assisted trigger for genuine astronomical signals enables the capturing of voltage samples spanning the burst duration to study the spectro-temporal-polarimetric properties at microsecond time resolution to probe FRB progenitor models as well as propagation imprints. With the successful execution of the SPOTLIGHT project we expect that this instrument will enable transformational, high impact science in time-domain astronomy with the GMRT over the period of its operation, along with being a trigger for cutting edge technology developmen