Speaker
Description
In this talk, I will present a real-time transient detection pipeline in the image plane for LOFAR data. This pipeline creates short duration snapshot images (seconds to a minute) and searches for transient sources in the differences between consecutive images. Upon detection of a transient candidate that passes our filters, buffered LOFAR station data will be dumped for offline analysis.
This method is targeted at transients with a pulse width on the order of seconds up to a minute. This is a relatively unexplored part of parameter space, while the recent discoveries of a several ‘Long Period Transients’ (LPTs) show the potential of searches on these timescales. Some LPTs have been confirmed to be white dwarf binaries, where the orbital period matches the radio period, while other LPTs have properties that seem to point towards a neutron star progenitor. The method has been thoroughly tested on LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS) data, where we re-detected a known LPT (ILT J1101+5521).
By real-time imaging of commensal LOFAR data using the EuroFlash cluster, a large data volume can be searched, with a low latency. In addition to being sensitive to a new population of radio transients, the under-explored part of the parameter space in combination with a large on-sky time potentially allows us to look for “unknown unknowns” as well. We aim to be processing real-time commensal data by spring 2026.
| Talk category | NOVA Network 3 |
|---|---|
| PhD relevance | 1st |
