Searching for Nanosecond Optical Transients with the TAIGA-HiSCORE Experiment

The TAIGA-HiSCORE Cherenkov array, located in Siberia, is a unique instrument designed to study cosmic rays and gamma rays. However, scientists have realized that it can also be used to search for a variety of fascinating astronomical phenomena, including nanosecond optical transients.

What are nanosecond optical transients? These are extremely short bursts of light that last for only a few nanoseconds. The source of these transients is unknown, but there are several intriguing possibilities:

• Evaporation of primordial black holes: Tiny black holes formed in the early universe could be evaporating today, releasing a burst of energy that includes optical light.
• Magnetic reconnection in black hole accretion disks: Sudden bursts of energy from these events could produce detectable nanosecond optical flashes.
• Signals from extraterrestrial civilizations: Advanced civilizations might be using powerful lasers to communicate across vast distances. TAIGA-HiSCORE could be sensitive enough to detect these signals.

he TAIGA-HiSCORE array has a very large field of view (FOV) of about 0.6 steradians, making it ideal for searching for rare events. Researchers have been collecting data for several years and have developed sophisticated techniques to filter out background noise and identify potential transient signals.

So far, no definitive evidence of astrophysical nanosecond optical transients has been found. However, the search continues, and the TAIGA-HiSCORE array is pushing the boundaries of what we know about the universe.

Reference:

A. D. Panov et al. "Four Years of Wide-Field Search for Nanosecond Optical Transients with the TAIGA-HiSCORE Cherenkov Array." arXiv:2412.00159v1 (2024).

Acknowledements: Podcast prepared with Google/NotebookLM. Illustration credits: TAIGA-HiSCORE