National Center for Supercomputing Applications master calendar

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Radio Transients with ASKAP

Event Type: Seminar/Symposium
Sponsor: Center for AstroPhysical Surveys
Location: NCSA 1040
Virtual
Date: Mar 3, 2023 12:00 - 1:00 pm
Speaker: Prof. David Kaplan
Contact: Srinivasan Raghunathan
E-Mail: srinirag@illinois.edu
Views: 24
Originating Calendar: Center for AstroPhysical Surveys; The Variables and Slow Transients Survey (VAST) on the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) is designed to detect highly variable and transient radio sources on timescales from 5 s to 5 yr. We present the survey description, observation strategy and initial results from the VAST Phase I Pilot Survey. This pilot survey consists of ~162 h of observations conducted at a central frequency of 888 MHz between 2019 August and 2020 August, with a typical rms sensitivity of 0.24 mJy/beam, angular resolution of 12-20 arcseconds, and 5-13 repeats covering 5000 square degrees. An initial search of 1646 square degrees revealed 28 highly variable and/or transient sources, including known pulsars, flaring stars, active galactic nuclei, and sources with no multi-wavelength counterpart. Targeted searches including circular polarization of the Galactic Center and Magellanic Clouds further identified a Galactic Center Radio Transient and a very luminous pulsar. We discuss these findings and plans for a full 5-year survey which started in late 2022.