FLITS: an interactive, reproducible workbench for fast radio burst analysis

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are brief flashes of radio emission whose time, frequency, and polarization structure constrain their sources and propagation environments. FLITS (Fast-Look Interactive Transient Suite) is an open-source Python package with a browser interface for analysing detected bursts. It combines data inspection, interference mitigation, measurement, and modelling, including fits of the fitburst burst model, in a shared session, and reads SIGPROC filterbank, PSRFITS, and CHIME/FRB HDF5 data. The same routines measure larger samples from the command line and flag bursts whose automatic selections need checking. Trial dispersion measures can be scored by signal-to-noise, by burst structure, or with a smoothed-structure metric that also reports the range of dispersion measures consistent with the best one. Portable session files retain the selected data regions, excluded channels, calibration inputs, available results, input-data checksum, and software provenance, and supported measurements can be replayed from the command line and compared with their saved values. Uncertainty labels identify missing calibration information. A public reference workflow provides downloadable data and numerical checks.

Authors

Publication Details

Journal
arXiv (Cornell University)
Published
2026-10-27
DOI
https://doi.org/10.48550/arxiv.2610.37034
Primary Topic
Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology
Type
preprint
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preprint

FLITS: an interactive, reproducible workbench for fast radio burst analysis

Ziggy Pleunis, Jason W. T. Hessels, Dirk Kuiper
arXiv (Cornell University)
Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology
preprint

FLITS: an interactive, reproducible workbench for fast radio burst analysis

Ziggy Pleunis, Jason W. T. Hessels, Dirk Kuiper
preprint en

Abstract

Fast radio bursts (FRBs) are brief flashes of radio emission whose time, frequency, and polarization structure constrain their sources and propagation environments. FLITS (Fast-Look Interactive Transient Suite) is an open-source Python package with a browser interface for analysing detected bursts. It combines data inspection, interference mitigation, measurement, and modelling, including fits of the fitburst burst model, in a shared session, and reads SIGPROC filterbank, PSRFITS, and CHIME/FRB HDF5 data. The same routines measure larger samples from the command line and flag bursts whose automatic selections need checking. Trial dispersion measures can be scored by signal-to-noise, by burst structure, or with a smoothed-structure metric that also reports the range of dispersion measures consistent with the best one. Portable session files retain the selected data regions, excluded channels, calibration inputs, available results, input-data checksum, and software provenance, and supported measurements can be replayed from the command line and compared with their saved values. Uncertainty labels identify missing calibration information. A public reference workflow provides downloadable data and numerical checks.

arXiv (Cornell University)
Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology
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FLITS: an interactive, reproducible workbench for fast radio burst analysis — Ziggy Pleunis, Jason W. T. Hessels, et al. · arXiv (Cornell University) (2026) | TGRS Research Map | TGRS