Searching for Gravitationally Lensed FRBs

with CHIME/FRB
Calvin Leung, Zarif Kader,
Profs. Kiyo Masui, Matt Dobbs
Motivation

This Work! Introduction to Lensing

Measure MACHO abundance? Why FRBs are great for lensing

Find strongly-lensed systems? Coherent Search for Lenses

Precision H0 measurements?
Preliminary constraints with a few
Equivalence principle tests? bursts
Real-time Cosmology?

Measuring Nanohertz GW?

 Signatures of a Lensed System

1) There are multiple images

2) Images are distorted
3) Brightness of source
changes over time
4) Images are delayed

Credit: Scott Gaudi

 Signatures of a Lensed System

1) There are multiple images

2) Images are distorted
3) Brightness of source
changes over time
4) Images are delayed

This Work!
Why FRBs? (Why not GRBs? Supernovae? GW? AGN?)

Common! ~104 Gpc-3 yr-1, better estimates coming in CHIME/FRB Catalog 1 (in press)
Compact! Probably from magnetars (CHIME/FRB et al. (2020), Bochenek et al. (2020))
Short Timescale! Phase Information!

FRBs FRBs Supernovae

LIGO GW Gamma Ray Bursts Active Galactic Nuclei

ns us ms days minutes weeks

solar masses
10-5 1011
CHIME
The Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment

Phased Array Beamforming Interferometer

400-800 MHz

800 MHz x 2048 antennas x 8 bits = 1.6 TB/s

(Compare to EHT station: 64 GB/s)
 North Pole

2007-2018: ~50 FRBs

Credit: CHIME Collaboration CHIME in 2018-2019: ~700 FRBs
CHIME/FRB Baseband System

~100 ms

Credit: Erik Madsen

Early results

Michilli et al. 2010.06748 - Baseband localization ~20 seconds

Mckinven et al. (2021) in prep. - Polarimetric Analysis

Leung et al. 2008.11738 - Progress towards VLBI localization

CHIME/FRB Baseband System
Leung et al. 2008.11738

Credit: Erik Madsen

Early results

Michilli et al. 2010.06748 - Baseband localization

Mckinven et al. (2021) in prep. - Polarimetric Analysis

Leung et al. 2008.11738 - Progress towards VLBI localization

 Incoherent vs Coherent Search
Leung et al. 2008.11738

Light Curve Delays Interferometric Delays

Measure Intensity = E2 (~10-6 Measure E : with Nyquist limited

second time resolution) sampling rate (~10-9 second time
resolution)

This Work!

Wikipedia
Matched Filter Autocorrelation
Matched Filter Autocorrelation
Q: So, what did we see?
Q: So, what did we see?
A: Lots of backgrounds

Better Q: What do we
expect to see?
Vetoes

Throw away spurious excesses

- RFI (figures to come )

- Dechannelization numerical artifacts (figures to come)
- Edge effects (figures to come)
 1 Einstein radius
Expected # of Lensing Events*:
Observable Region

Limited by
burst SNR

Limited by
time
resolution
 1 Einstein radius
Expected # of Lensing Events*:
Observable Region
 Expected # of Lensing Events (estimate)*
This Work!
per decade in mass per decade in mass

FRB 191219
FRB 181112 + FRB 180924
(Sammons et al. 2020!!!)

*Assuming all dark matter is made up of lenses

 Conclusion

Powerful coherent time delay search

can detect MACHO dark matter
candidates, e.g. LIGO-mass
primordial black holes, or rule them
out.
Zarif Kader, McGill MSc student

~100 bursts processed, many more

to come.
Thanks!
An aside on Source Sizes
Oguri (2019) : 1907.06830