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arXiv · astro-ph/0506758

Optical SETI with Imaging Cherenkov Telescopes

Abstract

The idea of searching for optical signals from extraterrestrial civilizations has become increasingly popular over the last five years, with dedicated projects at a number of observatories. The method relies on the detection of a brief (few ns), intense light pulse with fast photon detectors. Ground-based gamma-ray telescopes such as the Whipple 10m, providing a large mirror area and equipped with an array of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs), are ideal instruments for this kind of observation if the background of cosmic-ray events can be rejected. We report here on a method for searching for optical SETI pulses, using background discrimination techniques based on the image shape.

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J. Holder, P. Ashworth, S. LeBohec, H. J. Rose, T. C. Weekes. 2005-07-01. Optical SETI with Imaging Cherenkov Telescopes. https://arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0506758

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