Twenty-four thousand hours of GREENBURST observations with the GBT

Journal article

In addition to fast radio burst (FRB) searches carried out using dedicated surveys, a number of radio observatories take advantage of commensal opportunities with large facilities in which observations for other projects can be searched for FRBs and other transient sources. We present the results from one such effort, the first 24 186 h of the GREENBURST search for dispersed radio pulses with the Green Bank Telescope (GBT). To date, GREENBURST has detected a total of 50 pulsars and three FRBs. One of the pulsars, PSR J0039+5407, has a period of 2.2 s and was previously unknown. Using follow-up observations with the Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment, we found a timing solution for this pulsar which shows it to have a characteristic age of 2 Myr. Additional GBT observations show the pulsar has a very high nulling fraction (70–80 per cent). All three of the FRBs are repeating sources that were previously known and were being monitored by the GBT as part of other projects. A major challenge for GREENBURST in the discovery of new FRBs is its single beam. This makes it hard to distinguish some of the pulses from sources of radio frequency interference. We highlight this problem with a case study of an FRB-like pulse that initially passed our interference filters. Upon closer inspection, the event appears to be part of a longer duration narrow-band source of unknown origin. Further observations and monitoring are required to determine whether it is terrestrial or celestial.

Authors: Kania, JW; Paine, S; Doskoch, GM; Tabassum, S; Sirota, S

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Journal: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
• Volume: 548
• Issue: 2
• Pages: stag665
• Article number: stag665
• Publication date: 2026-04-09
• Acceptance date: 2026-04-02
• DOI: 10.1093/mnras/stag665
• EISSN: 1365-2966
• ISSN: 0035-8711
• Language: English
• Keywords: pulsars: individual: PSR J0039+5407; fast radio bursts; pulsars: general; methods: observational