Searching for Long-Period Radio Transients in ASKAP EMU Data with 10-Second Imaging

Fuente: arXiv
Gespeichert in:
Bibliographische Detailangaben
Hauptverfasser: Lee, Yu Wing Joshua, Wang, Yuanming, Caleb, Manisha, Murphy, Tara, An, Tao, Das, Barnali, Dobie, Dougal, Driessen, Laura N., Kaplan, David L., Lenc, Emil, Pritchard, Joshua, Wadiasingh, Zorawar, Xu, Zhijun
Format: Preprint
Veröffentlicht: 2025
Schlagworte:
Online-Zugang:
Tags: Tag hinzufügen
Keine Tags, Fügen Sie den ersten Tag hinzu!
_version_ 1866918199356817408
author Lee, Yu Wing Joshua
Wang, Yuanming
Caleb, Manisha
Murphy, Tara
An, Tao
Das, Barnali
Dobie, Dougal
Driessen, Laura N.
Kaplan, David L.
Lenc, Emil
Pritchard, Joshua
Wadiasingh, Zorawar
Xu, Zhijun
author_facet Lee, Yu Wing Joshua
Wang, Yuanming
Caleb, Manisha
Murphy, Tara
An, Tao
Das, Barnali
Dobie, Dougal
Driessen, Laura N.
Kaplan, David L.
Lenc, Emil
Pritchard, Joshua
Wadiasingh, Zorawar
Xu, Zhijun
contents Long-period radio transients (LPTs) are a recently identified phenomenon that challenge our current understanding of compact objects and coherent radio emission mechanisms. These objects emit radio pulses similar to those of pulsars, but at much longer periods -- on the order of minutes to hours. With duty cycles of only a few percent, individual pulses have been observed to last between 10 and 1000 seconds. This places LPTs in a timescale gap between the two main techniques used in transient radio searches: time-series analysis at millisecond to second timescales, and image-plane searches sensitive to variability on the scale of days. As a result, LPTs remained undetected until recently, and only a handful are currently known. To increase the sample of known LPTs, we conducted a dedicated search using 200 hours of archival data from the ASKAP Evolutionary Map of the Universe survey, covering 750 deg$^2$ of sky at the shortest possible imaging time step of 10-seconds. This represents the first large-scale search using ASKAP data at second-scale resolution. Although no LPTs were detected, we identified flares from six stars, at least one had never been detected in the radio regime before. We placed a lower limit on the transient surface density of $2.21\times10^{-6}$ deg$^{-2}$ at a 10-second timescale, with a sensitivity of 16.9 mJy. Our findings evaluate the feasibility of detecting radio transients using 10-second imaging with ASKAP and provide insights into improving detection pipelines and observation strategies for LPTs.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_09770
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Searching for Long-Period Radio Transients in ASKAP EMU Data with 10-Second Imaging
Lee, Yu Wing Joshua
Wang, Yuanming
Caleb, Manisha
Murphy, Tara
An, Tao
Das, Barnali
Dobie, Dougal
Driessen, Laura N.
Kaplan, David L.
Lenc, Emil
Pritchard, Joshua
Wadiasingh, Zorawar
Xu, Zhijun
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Long-period radio transients (LPTs) are a recently identified phenomenon that challenge our current understanding of compact objects and coherent radio emission mechanisms. These objects emit radio pulses similar to those of pulsars, but at much longer periods -- on the order of minutes to hours. With duty cycles of only a few percent, individual pulses have been observed to last between 10 and 1000 seconds. This places LPTs in a timescale gap between the two main techniques used in transient radio searches: time-series analysis at millisecond to second timescales, and image-plane searches sensitive to variability on the scale of days. As a result, LPTs remained undetected until recently, and only a handful are currently known. To increase the sample of known LPTs, we conducted a dedicated search using 200 hours of archival data from the ASKAP Evolutionary Map of the Universe survey, covering 750 deg$^2$ of sky at the shortest possible imaging time step of 10-seconds. This represents the first large-scale search using ASKAP data at second-scale resolution. Although no LPTs were detected, we identified flares from six stars, at least one had never been detected in the radio regime before. We placed a lower limit on the transient surface density of $2.21\times10^{-6}$ deg$^{-2}$ at a 10-second timescale, with a sensitivity of 16.9 mJy. Our findings evaluate the feasibility of detecting radio transients using 10-second imaging with ASKAP and provide insights into improving detection pipelines and observation strategies for LPTs.
title Searching for Long-Period Radio Transients in ASKAP EMU Data with 10-Second Imaging
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.09770