Inferential statistics for transient signal detection in radio astronomy phased arrays

In this paper we develop two statistical rules for the purpose of detecting pulsars and transients using signals from phased array feeds installed on a radio telescope in place of a traditional horn receiver. We assume a known response of the antenna arrays and known coupling among array elements. We briefly summarize a set of pre-processing steps applied to raw array data prior to signal detection and then derive two detection statistics assuming two models for the unknown radio source astronomical signal: (1) the signal is deterministic and (2) the signal is a random process. The performance of both detectors is analyzed using both real and simulated data.