We have conducted two pilot surveys for radio pulsars and fast transients with the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) around 140 MHz and here report on the first low-frequency fast-radio burst limit and the discovery of two new pulsars. The first survey, the LOFAR Pilot Pulsar Survey (LPPS), observed a large fraction of the northern sky, ~ 1.4 × 104 deg2, with 1 h dwell times. Each observation covered ~75 deg2 using 7 independent fields formed by incoherently summing the high-band antenna fields. The second pilot survey, the LOFAR Tied-Array Survey (LOTAS), spanned ~600 deg2, with roughly a 5-fold increase in sensitivity compared with LPPS. Using a coherent sum of the 6 LOFAR "Superterp" stations, we formed 19 tied-array beams, together covering 4 deg2 per pointing. From LPPS we derive a limit on the occurrence, at 142 MHz, of dispersed radio bursts of < 150 day-1 sky-1, for bursts brighter than S> 107 Jy for the narrowest searched burst duration of 0.66 ms. In LPPS, we re-detected 65 previously known pulsars. LOTAS discovered two pulsars, the first with LOFAR or any digital aperture array. LOTAS also re-detected 27 previously known pulsars. These pilot studies show that LOFAR can efficiently carry out all-sky surveys for pulsars and fast transients, and they set the stage for further surveying efforts using LOFAR and the planned low-frequency component of the Square Kilometer Array.

The LOFAR pilot surveys for pulsars and fast radio transients

Pilia, M.;Anderson, J.;Bonafede, A.;Hoeft, M.;
2014

Abstract

We have conducted two pilot surveys for radio pulsars and fast transients with the Low-Frequency Array (LOFAR) around 140 MHz and here report on the first low-frequency fast-radio burst limit and the discovery of two new pulsars. The first survey, the LOFAR Pilot Pulsar Survey (LPPS), observed a large fraction of the northern sky, ~ 1.4 × 104 deg2, with 1 h dwell times. Each observation covered ~75 deg2 using 7 independent fields formed by incoherently summing the high-band antenna fields. The second pilot survey, the LOFAR Tied-Array Survey (LOTAS), spanned ~600 deg2, with roughly a 5-fold increase in sensitivity compared with LPPS. Using a coherent sum of the 6 LOFAR "Superterp" stations, we formed 19 tied-array beams, together covering 4 deg2 per pointing. From LPPS we derive a limit on the occurrence, at 142 MHz, of dispersed radio bursts of < 150 day-1 sky-1, for bursts brighter than S> 107 Jy for the narrowest searched burst duration of 0.66 ms. In LPPS, we re-detected 65 previously known pulsars. LOTAS discovered two pulsars, the first with LOFAR or any digital aperture array. LOTAS also re-detected 27 previously known pulsars. These pilot studies show that LOFAR can efficiently carry out all-sky surveys for pulsars and fast transients, and they set the stage for further surveying efforts using LOFAR and the planned low-frequency component of the Square Kilometer Array.
2014
Coenen, Thijs; Van Leeuwen, Joeri; Hessels, Jason W. T.; Stappers, Ben W.; Kondratiev, Vladislav I.; Alexov, A.; Breton, R.P.; Bilous, A.; Cooper, S.; Falcke, H.; Fallows, R.A.; Gajjar, V.; Grießmeier, J.-M.; Hassall, T.E.; Karastergiou, A.; Keane, E.F.; Kramer, M.; Kuniyoshi, M.; Noutsos, A.; Osłowski, S.; Pilia, M.; Serylak, M.; Schrijvers, C.; Sobey, C.; Ter Veen, S.; Verbiest, J.; Weltevrede, P.; Wijnholds, S.; Zagkouris, K.; Van Amesfoort, A.S.; Anderson, J.; Asgekar, A.; Avruch, I.M.; Bell, M.E.; Bentum, M.J.; Bernardi, G.; Best, P.; Bonafede, A.; Breitling, F.; Broderick, J.; Brüggen, M.; Butcher, H.R.; Ciardi, B.; Corstanje, A.; Deller, A.; Duscha, S.; Eislöffel, J.; Fender, R.; Ferrari, C.; Frieswijk, W.; Garrett, M.A.; De Gasperin, F.; De Geus, E.; Gunst, A.W.; Hamaker, J.P.; Heald, G.; Hoeft, M.; Van Der Horst, A.; Juette, E.; Kuper, G.; Law, C.; Mann, G.; McFadden, R.; McKay-Bukowski, D.; McKean, J.P.; Munk, H.; Orru, E.; Paas, H.; Pandey-Pommier, M.; Polatidis, A.G.; Reich, W.; Renting, A.; Röttgering, H.; Rowlinson, A.; Scaife, A.M.M.; Schwarz, D.; Sluman, J.; Smirnov, O.; Swinbank, J.; Tagger, M.; Tang, Y.; Tasse, C.; Thoudam, S.; Toribio, C.; Vermeulen, R.; Vocks, C.; Van Weeren, R.J.; Wucknitz, O.; Zarka, P.; Zensus, A.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11585/674058
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