Calvin Leung

I am an NASA Einstein Fellow at UC Berkeley in the Department of Astronomy. I am a member of the CHIME/FRB Collaboration, and did my PhD at MIT Physics with Kiyo Masui. Since 2018 I've been playing a leading role in the CHIME/FRB Outriggers Project, which aims to VLBI-localize hundreds of fast radio bursts (FRBs) to 50 mas precision over CHIME's entire 200 deg^2 field of view every year. These FRBs and their redshifts will open up a new tracer of baryonic large-scale structure. FRBs are also fast, compact, and plentiful: multiply-imaged FRBs will be the future of gravitational lensing.

Starting in September 2024, I will be a Miller Fellow at UC Berkeley. I'll continue my work with CHIME/FRB in collaboration with the Radio Astronomy Lab (Dave DeBoer), as well as folks in the Department of Astronomy (Wenbin Lu) and Department of Physics (Liang Dai). I maintain very broad scientific interests. I will occasionally still think about atomic physics or quantum information, after spending a year in Anton Zeilinger's quantum information lab building an entangled photon source for the Cosmic Bell test and briefly working with Vladan Vuletic.

Email me at [three-letter acronym for fast radio burst] [at symbol] mit.edu

References

First and co-first author papers

My expertise is in very long baseline interferometric localizations of FRBs and other radio transients, interstellar optics, and large-scale structure.

1. A Catalog of Local Universe Fast Radio Bursts from CHIME/FRB and the KKO Outrigger
   
   [arXiv:2502.11217] Submitted to the Astrophysical Journal Supplement.
2. A Python and HDF5 based VLBI Correlator for widefield, transient VLBI
   
   [arXiv:2403.05631] Submitted to the Astronomical Journal.
3. A fast radio burst localized at detection to a galactic disk using very long baseline interferometry
   
   [arXiv:2307.09502] Nature Astronomy (corresponding author); co-led with Tomas Cassanelli and Pranav Sanghavi)
4. Wave Mechanics, Interference, and Decoherence in Strong Gravitational Lensing
   
   [arXiv:2304.01202] To appear in Springer Space Science Reviews.
5. Constraining Primordial Black Holes using Fast Radio Burst Gravitational-Lens Interferometry with CHIME/FRB
   
   [arXiv:2204.06001] Physical Review D.
6. A High-Time Resolution Search for Compact Objects using Fast Radio Burst Gravitational Lens Interferometry with CHIME/FRB
   
   [arXiv:22204.06014] Physical Review D; co-led with Zarif Kader.
7. A Synoptic VLBI Technique for Localizing Non-Repeating Fast Radio Bursts with CHIME/FRB
   
   [arXiv:2008.11738] The Astronomical Journal.
8. Testing the Weak Equivalence Principle using Optical and Near-Infrared Crab Pulses
   
   [arXiv:1804.04722] The Astrophysical Journal
9. Astronomical random numbers for quantum foundations experiments
   
   [arXiv:1706.02276] Physical Review A
10. Measuring the spatial resolution of an optical system in an undergraduate optics laboratory
    
    [Available from Am J Phys]
11. Estimation of Unmodeled Gravitational Wave Transients with Spline Regression and Particle Swarm Optimization
    
    [Available from SIAM Undergraduate Research Online]

Student-Led Papers

My goal is that every student who works with me as a primary supervisor can eventually lead a first-author paper. Mostly I work on observations, data analysis, and instrumentation, but no background using any particular set of tools is necessary. If you are interested in working with me please shoot me an email!

1. A repeating fast radio burst source in the outskirts of a quiescent galaxy
   
   [arXiv:2410.23374] Astrophysical Journal Letters; led by my graduate mentee, Vishwangi Shah (McGill)
2. A VLBI Calibrator Grid at 600MHz for Fast Radio Transient Localizations with CHIME/FRB Outriggers
   
   [arXiv:2409.11476] Submitted to the Astronomical Journal; led by my graduate mentee, Shion Andrew (MIT)
3. Scintillation Timescales of Bright FRBs Detected by CHIME/FRB
   
   [arXiv:2111.08753]
   Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society; led by my undergraduate mentee, Eve Schoen (MIT class of 2022; now PhD candidate at Berkeley Physics)
4. Evaluating and Enhancing Candidate Clocking Systems for CHIME/FRB VLBI Outriggers
   
   [arXiv:2109.05044]
   Research Notes of the American Astronomical Society; led by my undergraduate mentee, Savannah Cary (Wellesley class of 2022; now PhD candidate at Berkeley Astro)

Other (contributing author) Papers

I take pride in playing a strong supporting role to my colleagues, many of whom have become my close friends.

1. Investigating the sightline of a highly scattered FRB through a filamentary structure in the local Universe
   
   [arXiv:2410.07307] Kaitlyn Shin, Calvin Leung, et al. (2024).
2. TONE: A CHIME/FRB Outrigger Pathfinder for localizations of Fast Radio Bursts using Very Long Baseline Interferometry
   
   [arXiv:2110.13920] Pranav Sanghavi, Calvin Leung, et al. (2024).
3. Axion dark matter-induced echo of supernova remnants
   
   [arXiv:2110.13920] Yitian Sun, et al. including Calvin Leung (2021).
4. Localizing FRBs through VLBI with the Algonquin Radio Observatory 10-m Telescope
   
   [arXiv:2107.05659] Tomas Cassanelli, Calvin Leung et al. (2021).
5. A clock stabilization system for CHIME/FRB Outriggers
   
   [arXiv:2110.00576] Juan Mena-Parra, Calvin Leung et al. (2021).

Papers outside astrophysics

Significant papers from my past life outside astrophysics, from atomic physics to quantum optics. As a fun fact, the Cosmic Bell test was perhaps the final Bell test done before my supervisor Anton Zeilinger (along with Aspect and Clauser) won the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics in this area. It is also how, once upon a time, Paul Schechter managed to throw a wrench into the plans of some intrepid quantum optics experimentalists.

1. Evidence of Two-Source King Plot Nonlinearity in Spectroscopic Search for New Boson
   
   [arXiv:2201.03578]
   (PRL)
2. Evidence for Nonlinear Isotope Shift in Yb+ Search for New Boson
   
   [arXiv:2004.11383]
   (PRL)
3. Cosmic Bell Test Using Measurement Settings from High-Redshift Quasars
   
   [arXiv:1808.05966]
   (PRL)
4. Cosmic Bell Test: Measurement Settings from Milky Way Stars
   
   [arXiv:1611.06985]
   (PRL)

Music and Random Stuff