Limits on Fast Radio Bursts and other transient sources at 182 MHz using the Murchison Widefield Array

Rowlinson, A. ; Bell, M. E. ; Murphy, T. ; Trott, C. M. ; Hurley-Walker, N. ; Johnston, S. ; Tingay, S. J. ; Kaplan, D. L. ; Carbone, D. ; Hancock, P. J. ; Feng, L. ; Offringa, A. R. ; Bernardi, G. ; Bowman, J. D. ; Briggs, F. ; Cappallo, R. J. ; Deshpande, A. A. ; Gaensler, B. M. ; Greenhill, L. J. ; Hazelton, B. J. ; Johnston-Hollitt, M. ; Lonsdale, C. J. ; McWhirter, S. R. ; Mitchell, D. A. ; Morales, M. F. ; Morgan, E. ; Oberoi, D. ; Ord, S. M. ; Prabu, T. ; Udaya Shankar, N. ; Srivani, K. S. ; Subrahmanyan, R. ; Wayth, R. B. ; Webster, R. L. ; Williams, A. ; Williams, C. L. (2016) Limits on Fast Radio Bursts and other transient sources at 182 MHz using the Murchison Widefield Array Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, 458 (4). pp. 3506-3522. ISSN 0035-8711

Full text not available from this repository.

Official URL: https://academic.oup.com/mnras/article-abstract/45...

Related URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/mnras/stw451

Abstract

We present a survey for transient and variable sources, on time-scales from 28 s to ∼1 yr, using the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) at 182 MHz. Down to a detection threshold of 0.285 Jy, no transient candidates were identified, making this the most constraining low-frequency survey to date and placing a limit on the surface density of transients of < 4.1 × 10−7 deg−2 for the shortest time-scale considered. At these frequencies, emission from Fast Radio Bursts (FRBs) is expected to be detectable in the shortest time-scale images without any corrections for interstellar or intergalactic dispersion. At an FRB limiting flux density of 7980 Jy, we find a rate of <82 FRBs per sky per day for dispersion measures <700 pc cm−3. Assuming a cosmological population of standard candles, our rate limits are consistent with the FRB rates obtained by Thornton et al. if they have a flat spectral slope. Finally, we conduct an initial variability survey of sources in the field with flux densities ≳0.5 Jy and identify no sources with significant variability in their light curves. However, we note that substantial further work is required to fully characterize both the short-term and low-level variability within this field.

Item Type:Article
Source:Copyright of this article belongs to Oxford University Press.
Keywords:Instrumentation: Interferometers; Techniques: Image Processing; Catalogues; Radio Continuum: General
ID Code:114231
Deposited On:22 May 2018 09:23
Last Modified:22 May 2018 09:23

Repository Staff Only: item control page