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Title: MILLIMETER TRANSIENT POINT SOURCES IN THE SPTpol 100 SQUARE DEGREE SURVEY

Abstract

The millimeter transient sky is largely unexplored, with measurements limited to follow-up of objects detected at other wavelengths. High-angular-resolution telescopes, designed for measurement of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), offer the possibility to discover new, unknown transient sources in this band—particularly the afterglows of unobserved gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Here, we use the 10 m millimeter-wave South Pole Telescope, designed for the primary purpose of observing the CMB at arcminute and larger angular scales, to conduct a search for such objects. During the 2012–2013 season, the telescope was used to continuously observe a 100 deg{sup 2} patch of sky centered at R.A. 23{sup h}30{sup m} and decl. −55° using the polarization-sensitive SPTpol camera in two bands centered at 95 and 150 GHz. These 6000 hr of observations provided continuous monitoring for day- to month-scale millimeter-wave transient sources at the 10 mJy level. One candidate object was observed with properties broadly consistent with a GRB afterglow, but at a statistical significance too low ( p = 0.01) to confirm detection.

Authors:
; ;  [1]; ;  [2];  [3]; ;  [4]; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;  [5];  [6];  [7];  [8];
  1. Department of Physics, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720 (United States)
  2. Department of Physics, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)
  3. Cardiff University, Cardiff CF10 3XQ (United Kingdom)
  4. NIST Quantum Devices Group, 325 Broadway Mailcode 817.03, Boulder, CO 80305 (United States)
  5. Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue, Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)
  6. School of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science, University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban (South Africa)
  7. SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025 (United States)
  8. Department of Physics, McGill University, 3600 Rue University, Montreal, Quebec H3A 2T8 (Canada)
Publication Date:
OSTI Identifier:
22667305
Resource Type:
Journal Article
Journal Name:
Astrophysical Journal
Additional Journal Information:
Journal Volume: 830; Journal Issue: 2; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); Journal ID: ISSN 0004-637X
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English
Subject:
79 ASTROPHYSICS, COSMOLOGY AND ASTRONOMY; AFTERGLOW; COSMIC GAMMA BURSTS; DETECTION; GAMMA RADIATION; GHZ RANGE; POINT SOURCES; POLARIZATION; RELICT RADIATION; RESOLUTION; SEASONS; TELESCOPES; TRANSIENTS; WAVELENGTHS

Citation Formats

Whitehorn, N., Haan, T. de, George, E. M., Natoli, T., Carlstrom, J. E., Ade, P. A. R., Austermann, J. E., Beall, J. A., Bender, A. N., Benson, B. A., Bleem, L. E., Chang, C. L., Citron, R., Crawford, T. M., Crites, A. T., Gallicchio, J., Chiang, H. C., Cho, H-M., Dobbs, M. A., Everett, W., E-mail: nwhitehorn@berkeley.edu, E-mail: t.natoli@utoronto.ca, and others, and. MILLIMETER TRANSIENT POINT SOURCES IN THE SPTpol 100 SQUARE DEGREE SURVEY. United States: N. p., 2016. Web. doi:10.3847/0004-637X/830/2/143.
Whitehorn, N., Haan, T. de, George, E. M., Natoli, T., Carlstrom, J. E., Ade, P. A. R., Austermann, J. E., Beall, J. A., Bender, A. N., Benson, B. A., Bleem, L. E., Chang, C. L., Citron, R., Crawford, T. M., Crites, A. T., Gallicchio, J., Chiang, H. C., Cho, H-M., Dobbs, M. A., Everett, W., E-mail: nwhitehorn@berkeley.edu, E-mail: t.natoli@utoronto.ca, & others, and. MILLIMETER TRANSIENT POINT SOURCES IN THE SPTpol 100 SQUARE DEGREE SURVEY. United States. https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/830/2/143
Whitehorn, N., Haan, T. de, George, E. M., Natoli, T., Carlstrom, J. E., Ade, P. A. R., Austermann, J. E., Beall, J. A., Bender, A. N., Benson, B. A., Bleem, L. E., Chang, C. L., Citron, R., Crawford, T. M., Crites, A. T., Gallicchio, J., Chiang, H. C., Cho, H-M., Dobbs, M. A., Everett, W., E-mail: nwhitehorn@berkeley.edu, E-mail: t.natoli@utoronto.ca, and others, and. 2016. "MILLIMETER TRANSIENT POINT SOURCES IN THE SPTpol 100 SQUARE DEGREE SURVEY". United States. https://doi.org/10.3847/0004-637X/830/2/143.
@article{osti_22667305,
title = {MILLIMETER TRANSIENT POINT SOURCES IN THE SPTpol 100 SQUARE DEGREE SURVEY},
author = {Whitehorn, N. and Haan, T. de and George, E. M. and Natoli, T. and Carlstrom, J. E. and Ade, P. A. R. and Austermann, J. E. and Beall, J. A. and Bender, A. N. and Benson, B. A. and Bleem, L. E. and Chang, C. L. and Citron, R. and Crawford, T. M. and Crites, A. T. and Gallicchio, J. and Chiang, H. C. and Cho, H-M. and Dobbs, M. A. and Everett, W., E-mail: nwhitehorn@berkeley.edu, E-mail: t.natoli@utoronto.ca and others, and},
abstractNote = {The millimeter transient sky is largely unexplored, with measurements limited to follow-up of objects detected at other wavelengths. High-angular-resolution telescopes, designed for measurement of the cosmic microwave background (CMB), offer the possibility to discover new, unknown transient sources in this band—particularly the afterglows of unobserved gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Here, we use the 10 m millimeter-wave South Pole Telescope, designed for the primary purpose of observing the CMB at arcminute and larger angular scales, to conduct a search for such objects. During the 2012–2013 season, the telescope was used to continuously observe a 100 deg{sup 2} patch of sky centered at R.A. 23{sup h}30{sup m} and decl. −55° using the polarization-sensitive SPTpol camera in two bands centered at 95 and 150 GHz. These 6000 hr of observations provided continuous monitoring for day- to month-scale millimeter-wave transient sources at the 10 mJy level. One candidate object was observed with properties broadly consistent with a GRB afterglow, but at a statistical significance too low ( p = 0.01) to confirm detection.},
doi = {10.3847/0004-637X/830/2/143},
url = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/22667305}, journal = {Astrophysical Journal},
issn = {0004-637X},
number = 2,
volume = 830,
place = {United States},
year = {Thu Oct 20 00:00:00 EDT 2016},
month = {Thu Oct 20 00:00:00 EDT 2016}
}

Works referencing / citing this record:

Performance of Al–Mn Transition-Edge Sensor Bolometers in SPT-3G
journal, November 2019


Development of Flat Silicon-Based Mesh Lens Arrays for Millimeter and Sub-millimeter Wave Astronomy
journal, January 2020


Year two instrument status of the SPT-3G cosmic microwave background receiver
conference, August 2018

  • Carter, Faustin W.; Cecil, Thomas W.; Chang, Clarence L.
  • Millimeter, Submillimeter, and Far-Infrared Detectors and Instrumentation for Astronomy IX
  • https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2312426

The Simons Observatory: Science goals and forecasts
text, January 2019


AT2018cow: A Luminous Millimeter Transient
journal, January 2019


AREAcat : A Tool to Compute Area Coverage of GALEX UV GUVcat and BCScat , SDSS, PanSTARRS, and Gaia Source Catalogs in Chosen Sky Regions
journal, March 2019


The Simons Observatory: science goals and forecasts
journal, February 2019


The Simons Observatory: Science goals and forecasts
text, January 2018


Performance of Al-Mn Transition-Edge Sensor Bolometers in SPT-3G
text, January 2019