DRAFT RESEARCH PROPOSAL · RADIO FAST TRANSIENTS + NARROWBAND · MEERKAT ARCHIVE / SKA
A design for a MeerKAT-anchored radio program combining archival fast-transient re-mining, a rate framework calibrated against the M49 globular-cluster-system search, and a narrowband dual-use blueprint spanning axion, sub-GeV dark matter, and technosignature searches · Working draft · August 2026
Two radio search designs against Omega Centauri turned out to be the same program wearing different hats: a fast-transient/image-plane variability search and a narrowband dual-use search, both built on MeerKAT archival and future-epoch data. This proposal merges them into a single three-leg program with a data leg anchored on an already-executed third-party detection, a rate leg that sizes what a dedicated fast-transient search could add, and a design leg for the narrowband dual-use channel that a partner instrument (FAST) cannot reach from its declination.
The TRON collaboration (Smirnov, Heywood, et al.) published the first MeerKAT commensal image-plane transient/variability search across three globular clusters, using archival science-verification interferometric visibilities (arXiv:2501.09488). Their Omega Centauri dataset (project code SSV-20181107-FC-02, 9.13 h of 2018 imaging data) produced a real, executed detection: an eclipsing millisecond-pulsar ("black widow") candidate identified through image-plane variability. This is not a re-analysis this project performed; it is credited here as the data anchor the program is built around. The TRON pipeline itself (built on Stimela2) is not publicly released, and this project has no radio-imaging calibration stack of its own, no CASA/casacore/DDFacet-class infrastructure, no comparable compute footprint, and no precedent for visibility calibration and imaging in any prior OCS work.
Huang et al. (2025, AJ 171, 51; arXiv:2511.21085) ran the first dedicated globular-cluster narrowband technosignature survey with FAST, developing the C_index ranking metric used to prioritize targets (also applied independently to Omega Centauri's phase-space structure in a separate note, arXiv:2511.21085 companion analysis). FAST cannot observe Omega Centauri: the cluster sits at δ = −47°, well outside FAST's +65° to −14° operational range. The same group that built the metric and ran the survey cannot reach this target with their own instrument. This program is written so that group can co-sign or follow it as the southern-hemisphere completion of their own search.
TRON-style re-mining of archival MeerKAT interferometric visibilities for fast transients and image-plane variables, extended if possible to the TRAPUM 2021–2025 Omega Centauri epochs (commensal imaging visibilities are a simultaneous FBFUSE beamformer output alongside the pulsar-search beams, so an imaging-visibility product plausibly exists for these epochs, though this was not confirmed at a project-code level). A null result is itself a publishable Omega Centauri fast-transient limit; it does not require a detection to be a contribution.
| Item | Value / Status |
|---|---|
| 2018 SSV dataset (executed, third party) | 9.13 h, project SSV-20181107-FC-02, TRON I detection published |
| 2021–2025 TRAPUM epochs (unconfirmed) | Imaging-visibility product likely exists commensally; archive listing not confirmed at project-code level |
| Archive access | archive.sarao.ac.za; LSP default proprietary period is 12 months following each season's completion (SARAO Data Access Guidelines SSA-0003C-001 Rev02, §4.2.1.2) |
| Pipeline | TRON's own (Stimela2-based, not public); requires author contact/collaboration, or independent reimplementation of the imaging + variability-search method |
| Compute | No project baseline; MeerKAT wideband visibility sets for multi-hour, 60+ antenna observations typically run hundreds of GB to low TB even after standard averaging |
The M49 giant-elliptical globular-cluster-system fast-radio-transient rate framework (arXiv:2606.27225) ported to a single Galactic cluster, anchored on the Kirsten et al. repeating-source rate constraints (arXiv:2105.11445) and the FRB-in-globular-cluster prospects analysis (arXiv:2210.04907). This chain sizes what a dedicated Omega Centauri fast-transient search could plausibly detect given known rate scalings, and is explicit about the population systematics of porting an extragalactic giant-elliptical GC-system rate (different ages, metallicities, and GC populations) down to a single nearby Galactic cluster.
A narrowband spectral search reusing a single observing setup across three physically distinct signal classes, explicitly scoped to what each cited framework actually computes for its own configuration rather than extrapolated sensitivity claims. Axion-photon conversion signatures in resonant/haloscope-adjacent radio search frameworks (arXiv:2109.00877) run as a narrowband spectral excess search on the same backend as the technosignature channel. Sub-GeV dark matter via stimulated/spontaneous conversion (SSC) signatures (arXiv:2602.08731) form a second narrowband physics channel riding on the same spectral data. A technosignature narrowband beacon search, the direct southern-sky counterpart to Huang et al.'s FAST-SETI program, uses the RFI-rejection methodology of arXiv:2411.16556 to separate genuine narrowband candidates from the LEO-constellation and terrestrial interference that dominates the false-candidate budget at these frequencies.
All three channels are commensal with the same spectral backend and pointing; none requires dedicated telescope time beyond what the technosignature channel alone would need. See the companion MeerKAT Radio Technosignature Survey proposal for the narrowband observing-strategy table (frequency coverage, spectral resolution, sensitivity) this design leg reuses directly.
| Result | Interpretation |
|---|---|
| Data leg executed, null fast-transient result | First dedicated (or re-mined) Omega Centauri fast-transient limit from interferometric imaging; a real contribution even without a detection |
| Data leg executed, candidate detected | Requires independent confirmation across epochs before any interpretation; follows the TRON I precedent of treating a single-epoch candidate as provisional |
| Data leg not executed (no partner, no access) | Program has no data anchor of its own; remains a design document on this proposals page, citing the TRON I 2018 detection as the field's existing result rather than claiming one |
| Narrowband excess surviving RFI rejection | Candidate in one of three physically distinct channels (axion, SSC dark matter, technosignature); requires channel-specific follow-up before attribution to any one framework |
SSV-20181107-FC-02), data anchor for this program.