[astro-ph.IM] Techniques for identifying radio beacons transmitted by extra-terrestrial civilizations are well advanced.

However, the casual broadband emission from standard radio communication is much harder to detect, and counter-intuitively casual Earth radio transmissions are becoming more difficult to identify as we more efficiently utilize the radio spectrum.

In this paper we examine the electric-field statistics behind radio communication and re-conceptualize standard radio imaging as the first non-zero cumulant. This leads us to images of the higher cumulants where the natural stochastic emission from astrophysical sources disappears, leaving images of only modulated sources of radio communication.

Faint SETI and RFI sources stand out in these cumulant images, enabling identification of faint communication that is undetectable with current techniques.

Miguel F. Morales

Comments: 13 pages, 2 figures, 1 table
Subjects: Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM)
Cite as: arXiv:2609.04472 [astro-ph.IM](or arXiv:2609.04472v1 [astro-ph.IM] for this version)
https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2609.04472
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Submission history
From: Miguel F. Morales
[v1] Thu, 3 Sep 2026 20:53:04 UTC (850 KB)
https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.04472

Astrobiology, SETI, Technosignature, Astronomy,

Explorers Club Fellow, ex-NASA Space Station Payload manager/space biologist, Away Teams, Journalist, Lapsed climber, Synaesthete, Na’Vi-Jedi-Freman-Buddhist-mix, ASL, Devon Island and Everest Base Camp...

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