NSM’s SPOTLIGHT: An Unprecedented Journey into the Transient Universe

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 Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (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-temporalpolarimetric properties at microsecond time resolution to probe FRB progenitor models as well as propagation imprints. SPOTLIGHT, an AI-powered big data science project on indigenously developed hardware, enables transformational, high-impact science in time-domain astronomy with the GMRT. The initiative aims to build a robust technological and scientific workforce within the country to enable cutting-edge scientific applications.