The Breakthrough Listen Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence

Abstract

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 MeerKAT Telescope as a Pulsar Facility: System verification and early science results from MeerTime

“…The TRAPUM and Breakthrough Listen compute clusters currently being commissioned on site receive the voltages from every individual antenna and can form coherent beams that can be independently steered within the primary beam. TRAPUM will form up to (depending upon bandwidth) 900 coherent beams to search for pulsars and Fast Radio Bursts (Stappers & Kramer, 2016) whilst the Breakthrough Listen cluster intends to search for techno-signatures from advanced civilisations (Gajjar et al, 2019). These instruments can complement PTUSE by placing a tied beam on all known pulsars within the primary beam to maximise efficiency when timing the dozens of MSPs that inhabit globular clusters like 47 Tucanae and Terzan 5.…”

Upper limit on the fraction of alien civilizations that develop communication technology

“…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 [50][51][52]. The search for extrasolar biomolecular building blocks and molecular biosignatures of extinct extraterrestrial life will soon be extended to the lunar surface [53].…”

Searching for technosignatures in exoplanetary systems with current and future missions

“…The Pulsed All-sky Near-infrared Optical SETI (PANOSETI) observatory is a design for a dedicated facility to perform optical and near-infrared surveys for nanosecond pulses across the entire northern hemisphere [111]. And the Breakthrough Listen project is collaborating with VERITAS to search for pulsed optical beacons [152]. Many ground-based facilities could be used to place limits on the prevalence of optical beacons, while larger facilities such as Rubin, RST, and ELTs -and perhaps ARIEL and EarthFinder -could provide even stronger detectability constraints.…”