Localising fast radio bursts and other transients using interferometric arrays

Abstract

A new population of sources emitting fast and bright transient radio bursts has recently been identified. The observed large dispersion measure values of FRBs suggests an extragalactic origin and an accurate determination of their positions and distances will provide an unique opportunity to study the magneto-ionic properties of the IGM. So far, FRBs have all been found using large dishes equipped with multi-pixel arrays. While large single dishes are well-suited for the discovery of transient sources they are poor at providing accurate localisations. A 2D snapshot image of the sky, made with a correlation interferometer array, can provide an accurate localisation of many compact radio sources simultaneously. However, the required time resolution to detect FRBs and a desire to detect them in real time, makes this currently impractical. In a beamforming approach, where many narrow tied-array beams are produced, the advantages of single dishes and interferometers can be combined. We present a proof-of-concept analysis of a new non-imaging method that utilises the additional spectral and comparative spatial information obtained from multiple overlapping TABs to estimate a transient source location with up to arcsecond accuracy in almost real time. We show that this method can work for a variety of interferometric configurations, including for LOFAR and MeerKAT, and that the estimated angular position may be sufficient to identify a host galaxy without reference to other simultaneous or follow-up observations. With this method, many transient sources can be localised to small fractions of a HPBW of a TAB, in the case of MeerKAT, sufficient to localise a source to arcsecond accuracy. In cases where the position is less accurately determined we can still significantly reduce the area that need be searched for associated emission at other wavelengths and potential host galaxies.

arXiv comment17 pages, 12 figures, accepted for publication in the Astronomy and Astrophysics journal, updated Table 1

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• A Second Source of Repeating Fast Radio Bursts
• Observations of Fast Radio Bursts at Frequencies down to 400 Megahertz
• Imaging Spectroscopy of Solar Radio Burst Fine Structures
• A survey of FRB fields: Limits on repeatability
• Realfast: Real-Time, Commensal Fast Transient Surveys with the Very Large Array
• Wide field beamformed observation with MeerKAT
• The TRAPUM L-band survey for pulsars in Fermi-LAT gamma-ray sources
• Dispersion by pulsars, magnetars, fast radio bursts and massive electromagnetism at very low radio frequencies
• MeerTRAP: Twelve Galactic fast transients detected in a real-time, commensal MeerKAT survey
• A 21 cm pilot survey for pulsars and transients using the Focal L-Band Array for the Green Bank Telescope