No Arabic abstract
We study an interstellar signaling scheme which was originally proposed by Seto (2019) and efficiently links intentional transmitters to ETI searchers through a conspicuous astronomical burst, without prior communication. Based on the geometrical and game theoretic viewpoints, the scheme can be refined so that intentional signals can be sent and received after observing a reference burst, in contrast to the original proposal (before observing a burst). Given this inverted temporal structure, Galactic supernovae recorded in the past 2000 years can be regarded as interesting guideposts for an ETI search. While the best use period of SN 393 has presumably passed $sim$100 years ago, some of the historical supernovae might allow us to compactify the ETI survey regions down to less than one present of $4pi$, around two rings in the sky.
The discovery of the ubiquity of habitable extrasolar planets, combined with revolutionary advances in instrumentation and observational capabilities, have ushered in a renaissance in the millenia-old quest to answer our most profound question about the Universe and our place within it - Are we alone? The Breakthrough Listen Initiative, announced in July 2015 as a 10-year 100M USD program, is the most comprehensive effort in history to quantify the distribution of advanced, technologically capable life in the universe. In this white paper, we outline the status of the on-going observing campaign with our primary observing facilities, as well as planned activities with these instruments over the next few years. We also list collaborative facilities which will conduct searches for technosignatures in either primary observing mode, or commensally. We highlight some of the novel analysis techniques we are bringing to bear on multi-petabyte data sets, including machine learning tools we are deploying to search for a broader range of technosignatures than was previously possible.
The ease of interstellar rocket travel is an issue with implications for the long term fate of our own and other civilizations and for the much-debated number of technological civilizations in the Galaxy. We show that the physical barrier to interstellar travel can be greatly reduced if voyagers are patient, and wait for the close passage of another star. For a representative time of $sim$1 Gyr, characteristic of the remaining time that Earth will remain habitable, one anticipates a passage of another star within $sim 1500$~AU. This lowers the travel time for interstellar migration by $sim$ two orders of magnitude compared with calculated travel times based on distances comparable to average interstellar separations (i.e., $sim$1 pc) in the solar vicinity. We consider the implications for how long-lived civilizations may respond to stellar evolution, including the case of stars in wide binaries, and the difficulties of identifying systems currently undergoing a relevant close encounter. Assuming that life originates only around G-type stars, but migrates primarily to lower mass hosts when the original system becomes uninhabitable, the fraction of extant technological civilizations that exist as diaspora can be comparable to the fraction that still orbit their original host stars.
Any considerations on propagation of particles through the Universe must involve particle interactions: processes leading to production of particle cascades. While one expects existence of such cascades, the state of the art cosmic-ray research is oriented purely on a detection of single particles, gamma rays or associated extensive air showers. The natural extension of the cosmic-ray research with the studies on ensembles of particles and air showers is being proposed by the CREDO Collaboration. Within the CREDO strategy the focus is put on generalized super-preshowers (SPS): spatially and/or temporally extended cascades of particles originated above the Earth atmosphere, possibly even at astrophysical distances. With CREDO we want to find out whether SPS can be at least partially observed by a network of terrestrial and/or satellite detectors receiving primary or secondary cosmic-ray signal. This paper addresses electromagnetic SPS, e.g. initiated by VHE photons interacting with the cosmic microwave background, and the SPS signatures that can be seen by gamma-ray telescopes, exploring the exampleof Cherenkov Telescope Array. The energy spectrum of secondary electrons and photons in an electromagnetic super-preshower might be extended over awide range of energy, down to TeV or even lower, as it is evident from the simulation results. This means that electromagnetic showers induced by such particles in the Earth atmosphere could be observed by imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. We present preliminary results from the study of response of the Cherenkov Telescope Array to SPS events, including the analysis of the simulated shower images on the camera focal plane and implementedgeneric reconstruction chains based on the Hillas parameters.
In a previous work, we establish that the acclaimed Arabic records of SN 1054 from ibn Butlan originate from Europe. Also, we reconstructed the European sky at the time of the event and find that the new star (SN 1054) was in the west while the planet Venus was on the opposite side of the sky (in the east) with the Sun sited directly between these two equally bright objects, as documented in East-Asian records. Here, we investigate the engravings on tombstones (stecci) from several necropolises in present-day Bosnia and Herzegovina (far from the influence of the Church) as a possible European record of SN 1054. Certainly, knowledge and understanding of celestial events (such as supernovae) were somewhat poor in the mid-XI century.
The GAPS experiment is designed to carry out a sensitive dark matter search by measuring low-energy cosmic ray antideuterons and antiprotons. GAPS will provide a new avenue to access a wide range of dark matter models and masses that is complementary to direct detection techniques, collider experiments and other indirect detection techniques. Well-motivated theories beyond the Standard Model contain viable dark matter candidates which could lead to a detectable signal of antideuterons resulting from the annihilation or decay of dark matter particles. The dark matter contribution to the antideuteron flux is believed to be especially large at low energies (E < 1 GeV), where the predicted flux from conventional astrophysical sources (i.e. from secondary interactions of cosmic rays) is very low. The GAPS low-energy antiproton search will provide stringent constraints on less than 10 GeV dark matter, will provide the best limits on primordial black hole evaporation on Galactic length scales, and will explore new discovery space in cosmic ray physics. Unlike other antimatter search experiments such as BESS and AMS that use magnetic spectrometers, GAPS detects antideuterons and antiprotons using an exotic atom technique. This technique, and its unique event topology, will give GAPS a nearly background-free detection capability that is critical in a rare-event search. GAPS is designed to carry out its science program using long-duration balloon flights in Antarctica. A prototype instrument was successfully flown from Taiki, Japan in 2012. GAPS has now been approved by NASA to proceed towards the full science instrument, with the possibility of a first long-duration balloon flight in late 2020. Here we motivate low-energy cosmic ray antimatter searches and discuss the current status of the GAPS experiment and the design of the payload.