Speaker
Description
Long-period transients (LPTs) are a recently identified class of coherent radio transients with durations ranging from a few seconds to several minutes, and periodicities on timescales of minutes to hours. To date, only twelve such sources have been reported, with few confirmed to reside in white dwarf–M-dwarf binary systems. The absence of detected optical companions or detection of X-rays in other cases leaves open alternative interpretations, including a possible magnetar origin. Identifying more LPTs is critical to constraining the population and evolutionary pathways of slowly rotating neutron stars and white dwarfs.
Here, we present our ongoing analysis of the LOFAR Two-Metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) data from a systematic search for long-period transients and other coherent radio bursts probing a largely unexplored region of the northern radio sky. Our approach uses modern imaging techniques, including subtraction imaging and fast filter analysis, to detect rare bursts using 8-second and 2-minute snapshot images. We report the re-detection of an LPT with a 125.5-minute period, associated with a binary system containing an M-dwarf companion and known pulsars. We also present the initial results and highlight other transient candidates identified in the first 10% of the LoTSS Data. We also introduce a new de-dispersion technique developed for LOFAR images, aimed at detecting fainter, dispersed signals. This technique will be applied for the first time to the entire LoTSS DR3.
This project serves as a benchmark for transient search methodologies with LOFAR 2.0 and lays the groundwork for the upcoming EuroFlash project, which aims to enable real-time detection of radio transients.
| Talk category | NOVA Network 3 |
|---|---|
| Second preference | Data Science |
| PhD relevance | 2nd |
