Searching for the proverbial needle in the Cosmic Haystack

PSETI Seminar

Shubham Kanodia

October 1, 2020

Abstract:
Originally proposed in the 1980s by Jill Tarter, the 9 dimensional cosmic haystack attempts to parameterize the various dimensions in the searches for technosignatures. By doing so, one can quantify the fraction of this high dimensional volume that has been searched; where we can rule out the presence of technosignatures. I'll discuss our development of one such haystack to quantify the search for radio technosignatures. Finally, I'll place the Fermi paradox in context of the amount of searching that has been done in the radio.