A SEARCH FOR RADIO TRANSIENTS IN VERY LARGE ARRAY ARCHIVAL IMAGES OF THE 3C 286 FIELD
- Radio Astronomy Laboratory and Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, 601 Campbell Hall 3411, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Columbia University, 538 West 120th Street, 1333 Pupin, MC 5255, New York, NY 10027 (United States)
We present a search for radio transients (RTs) in the field of the bright radio source 3C 286 using archival observations from the Very Large Array (VLA). These observations span 23 years and include 1852 epochs at 1.4 GHz in the C and D configurations. We find no transients in the field. The sensitivity of the observations is limited by dynamic range effects in the images. At large flux densities (>0.2 Jy), single-epoch observations provide a strong limit on the transient surface density. At flux densities near the dynamic range threshold, we use the requirement that transient sources must appear in consecutive epochs to be confirmed as real. This sets the sensitivity at low flux densities to transient durations of {tau} {approx} 1 day, while {tau}>1 minute for high flux densities. At 70 mJy, we find a 2{sigma} limit on the surface density {Sigma} < 3 x 10{sup -3} deg{sup -2}. At 3 Jy, we find a 2{sigma} limit {Sigma} < 9 x 10{sup -4} deg{sup -2}. A future systematic search of the VLA archives can provide one to two orders of magnitude more sensitivity to RTs.
- OSTI ID:
- 21560508
- Journal Information:
- Astrophysical Journal Letters, Vol. 728, Issue 1; Other Information: DOI: 10.1088/2041-8205/728/1/L14; ISSN 2041-8205
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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