A Very Large Array search for 5 GHz radio transients and variables at low Galactic latitudes. (2011)
Keywords :
radio continuum general - stars: neutron - techniques: photometric
Abstract:We present the results of a 5GHz survey with the Very Large Array (VLA) and the expanded VLA, designed to search for short-lived (<~1day) transients and to characterize the variability of radio sources at milli-Jansky levels. A total sky area of 2.66deg^2^, spread over 141 fields at low Galactic latitudes (b~6-8{deg}), was observed 16 times with a cadence that was chosen to sample timescales of days, months, and years. Most of the data were reduced, analyzed, and searched for transients in near real-time. Interesting candidates were followed up using visible light telescopes (typical delays of 1-2hr) and the X-ray Telescope on board the Swift satellite. The final processing of the data revealed a single possible transient with a
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141 fields (listed in table 2) were observed on 11 epochs using the
VLA in 2008 July and August and on five epochs using the Expanded VLA
(EVLA) during 2010 July. All observations were made in the compact
D-configuration, with a maximum baseline of 0.6km. For the 2008
observations, we added together two adjacent 50MHz bandwidths
centered at 4835 and 4885MHz with full polarization. For the 2010
observations, we added together two adjacent 128 MHz sub-bands
centered at 4896 and 5024MHz with full polarization.
The "Single epoch catalog" was generated by running SAD (Astronomical
Image Processing System (AIPS) task "search and destroy" (SAD)) on a
15 arcmin diameter region for each single-epoch image individually
(Table 5). A second "Master catalog" (Table 6) was created by
running SAD on the final Master images made from all available data
(16 epochs).
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