The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Detection of mm-wave transient sources

Abstract

We report on the serendipitous discovery of three transient mm-wave sources using data from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope. The first, detected at RA = 273.8138, dec = -49.4628 at $\sim 50\sigma$ total, brightened from less than 5 mJy to at least 1100 mJy at 150 GHz with an unknown rise time shorter than thirteen days, during which the increase from 250 mJy to 1100 mJy took only 8 minutes. Maximum flux was observed on 2019-11-8. The source's spectral index in flux between 90 and 150 GHz was positive, $\alpha =1.5\pm 0.2$. The second, detected at RA = 105.1584, dec = -11.2434 at $\sim 20\sigma$ total, brightened from less than 20 mJy to at least 300 mJy at 150 GHz with an unknown rise time shorter than eight days. Maximum flux was observed on 2019-12-15. Its spectral index was also positive, $\alpha =1.8\pm 0.2$. The third, detected at RA = 301.9952, dec = 16.1652 at $\sim 40\sigma$ total, brightened from less than 8 mJy to at least 300 mJy at 150 GHz over a day or less but decayed over a few days. Maximum flux was observed on 2018-9-11. Its spectrum was approximately flat, with a spectral index of $\alpha =-0.2\pm 0.1$. None of the sources were polarized to the limits of these measurements. The two rising-spectrum sources are coincident in position with M and K stars, while the third is coincident with a G star.

arXiv comment8 pages, 4 figures, 1 table

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