SPOTLIGHT: A Transformative Exploration of the Fast Radio Transient Sky with the GMRT
Panda U., Bane K., Das J., Pal A., Bhong D., Katore SN., Kudale SS., Muley M., Reddy SH., Roy J., Chengalur J., Adamek K., Ajudiya K., Armour W., Bhattacharyya S., Debnath R., Deo NP., Dudeja C., Gnanaraj S., Kumar A., Kumari S., Meshram S., Wani R., Bhattacharyya B., Bhusare Y., Ghosh A., Kale R., Kumar A., Lal B., Ma K., Maan Y., Majee P., Marthi VRR., Sahoo SK., Sarkar S., Sharan R.
SPOTLIGHT is a commensal survey for FRBs, pulsars, and other objects via the GMRT, powered by a dedicated, petaFLOPS-capable computational backend. The SPOTLIGHT system has the capability to search for, detect, and localise transient time-domain events in real-time, using transient search and imaging pipelines optimised for high performance computing (HPC). Using the unparalleled senstivity and frequency coverage of the uGMRT, the SPOTLIGHT system will enable the detection and localisation of hundreds of FRBs over its operation, building a large dataset that will enable their use as cosmological probes. The system's AI-optimised triggers will allow capturing high-resolution voltage samples across the duration of the detected events, which will be used for a thorough spectro-temporal-polarimetric analysis. Such analyses will help probe the emission mechanisms and progenitors of these sources. With the successful execution of the SPOTLIGHT project, we expect that the GMRT will enable transformational, high impact science in the field of time-domain astronomy, while also enabling cutting edge technological developments across various fronts.