Galaxy-Targeting Approach Optimized for Finding the Radio Afterglows of Gravitational Wave Sources

Kilonovae and radio afterglows of neutron star merger events have been identified as the two most promising counterparts, of these gravitational wave sources, that can provide arcsecond localization. While several new and existing optical search facilities have been dedicated to finding kilonovae, factors such as dust obscuration and the daytime sky may thwart these searches in a significant fraction of gavitational wave events. Radio-only searches, being almost immune to these factors, are equally capable of finding the counterparts and in fact offer a complementary discovery approach, despite the modest fields of view for many of the present-day radio interferometers. Such interferometers will be able to carry out competitive searches for the electromagnetic counterparts through the galaxy targeting approach. Adapting and improving on an existing algorithm by Rana et al. 2017. we present here a method that optimizes the placement of radio antenna pointings, integration time, and antenna slew. We simulate 3D gravitational wave localizations to find the efficacy of our algorithm; with substantial improvements in slew overhead and containment probability coverage, our algorithm performs significantly better than simple galaxy-rank-ordered observations. We propose that telescopes such as the Very Large Array, MeerKAT, Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Gaint Meterwave Radio Telescope, having fields of view $\lesssim$1 deg$^2$ and searching for the counterparts of nearby GW events over tens of square degrees or larger, will especially benefit from this optimized galaxy-targeting approach for electromagnetic counterpart searches.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figures, Submitted to Ap

Study of X-ray emission from the old open cluster, M67

We present an X-ray analysis of a 4 Gyr old open cluster, M67, using archival XMM-Newton data. The aim of this study was to find new X-ray members of M67, and to use the updated member list for studying X-ray variability, and derive the X-ray luminosity functions (XLFs) of different stellar types and compare them with other star clusters of similar age. We report the detection of X-ray emission from 25 members of M67, with membership based primarily on their proper motion, of which one X-ray source is a new member. Supplementing this study with previous ROSAT and Chandra studies of M67, and using the most recent proper motion study by Vereshchagin et al., we have compiled a revised list of X-ray emitting members of M67 consisting of 43 stars. Sixteen of these are known RS CVn type binaries having orbital periods $<$ 10 days, and near-circular orbits, 5 are contact binaries with orbital periods $<$ 6 hours, 5 are yellow and blue stragglers, 2 are Algol-type binaries, and one source is a cataclysmic variable. Fourteen members do not have any orbital information and cannot be classified. Fourteen of the X-ray sources detected do not have any optical counterpart down to a magnitude of $V\simeq22$, and their membership is uncertain. Finally, we report the X-ray luminosity functions of RS CVn type and other types of stars in M67 and compare them with other open clusters of intermediate-to-old age.Comment: 13 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA

A Search for Pulsars Towards the Galactic Center

We present observations from two separate methods for observing the Galactic Center in an attempt to characterize its pulsar and neutron star populations. A persistent puzzle of the past 20 years has been the lack of pulsar detections towards the Galactic Center, specifically within a few parsecs of the central supermassive black hole Sgr A*. This object is bright in the total intensity of its polarized emission, but is very weakly linearly polarized. We take advantage of these circumstances in an experimental search technique where we utilize the Faraday effect in an attempt to detect high rotation measure (RM) point sources towards the Galactic Center, as the few pulsars that have been detected in this region have all been measured at a high RM. We also conduct a wide-field search of the 5◦area around the Galactic Center at low frequencies (230-470MHz) and at multiple epochs in an attempt to detect transient sources and other significant emitters of synchrotron radiation

Independence of monthly and bimonthly rainfall over southeast Asia during the summer monsoon season

Independence of monthly and bimonthly rainfall has been investigated for 39 well-distributed and long-record stations in the field of the Asian summer monsoon. The study reveals: (1) monthly rainfall is pairwise independent but is not tripletwise or quadrupletwise independent and (2) rainfall during the first half of the summer monsoon season is independent of rainfall during the second half. The implications of these results are discussed

Gamma distribution probability model for Asian summer monsoon monthly rainfall

Using data from 39 well-distributed and long-record stations over the area, we found gamma distribution to be the most suitable probability model from among the Pearsonian models that show good fit to monthly rainfall in the Asian summer monsoon. We show that the monthly rainfall distribution is not Gaussian and the simple square-root, cube-root, and logarithmic transformations are of limited utility for normalizing the rainfall distribution. A Craig type chart indicates that the rainfall distribution is a Type I distribution or a special or limiting case of this distribution; these distributions are fitted to monthly rainfall, and the goodness-of-fit is tested by the chi-square test. The gamma distribution (Pearson's Type III), which is a limiting case of Type I distribution and next, to the Gaussian distribution in simplicity, gives a good fit to monthly rainfall at all the stations in each of the summer monsoon months; the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and the variance ratio test confirm this good fit. The Type I distribution shows good fit to June rainfall at 26 stations, July rainfall at 31 stations, August rainfall at 24 stations, and September rainfall at 23 stations. Type IX, a special case of Type I, shows good fit to June rainfall at four stations, July rainfall at two stations, August rainfall at four stations, and September rainfall at three stations. In cases where the gamma and other Pearsonian distributions show good fit, the gamma distribution is found to be the most suitable. The spatial distribution of the scale and shape parameters of the gamma distribution applied to monthly rainfall over the area is examined and the chief features of the distribution are indicated and explained. Deciles of the mixed gamma distribution applied to monthly rainfall are tabulated; these can be used to obtain the monthly rainfall probabilities required by any user

Changing-look AGNs or short-lived radio sources?

The evolution of extragalactic radio sources has been a fundamental problem in the study of active galactic nuclei for many years. A standard evolutionary model has been created based on observations of a wide range of radio sources. In the general scenario of the evolution, the younger and smaller Gigahertz-Peaked Spectrum (GPS) and Compact Steep Spectrum (CSS) sources become large-scale FRI and FRII objects. However, a growing number of observations of low power radio sources suggests that the model cannot explain all their properties and there are still some aspects of the evolutionary path that remain unclear. There are indications, that some sources may be short-lived objects on timescales of $10^4$ - $10^5$ years. Those objects represent a new population of active galaxies. Here, we present the discovery of several radio transient sources on timescales of 5-20 years, largely associated with renewed AGN (Active Galactic Nucleus) activity. These changing-look AGNs possibly represent behaviour typical for many active galaxies.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, contribution to proceedings of the conference "Quasars at all cosmic epochs

A GMRT 150 MHz search for variables and transients in Stripe 82

We have carried out a dedicated transient survey of 300 deg2 of the SDSS Stripe 82 region using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT) at 150 MHz. Our multi-epoch observations, together with the TGSS survey, allow us to probe variability and transient activity on four different time-scales, beginning with 4 h and up to 4 yr. Data calibration, RFI flagging, source finding, and transient search were carried out in a semi-automated pipeline incorporating the SPAM recipe. This has enabled us to produce superior-quality images and carry out reliable transient search over the entire survey region in under 48 h post-observation. Among the few thousand unique point sources found in our 5σ single-epoch catalogues (flux density thresholds of about 24, 20, 16, and 18 mJy on the respective time-scales), we find <0.08 per cent, 0.01 per cent, <0.06 per cent, and 0.05 per cent to be variable (beyond a significance of 4σ and fractional variability of 30 per cent) on time-scales of 4 h, 1 d, 1 month, and 4 yr, respectively. This is substantially lower than that in the GHz sky, where ∼1 per cent of the persistent point sources are found to be variable. Although our survey was designed to probe a superior part of the transient phase space, our transient search did not yield any significant candidates. The transient (preferentially extragalactic) rate at 150 MHz is therefore <0.005 on time-scales of 1 month and 4 yr, and <0.002 on time-scales of 1 d and 4 h, beyond 7σ detection threshold. We put these results in perspective with the previous studies and give recommendations for future low-frequency transient surveys

Computation of the average precipitation over the western part of the peninsular India during summer monsoon from the continuity equation for atmospheric water vapour

Water vapour fluxes computed across different walls of the triangular volume of peninsular India, bounded by Trivandrum, Bombay and Nagpur, were used to compute the net flux convergence on a monthly mean basis for the months June through September for the years 1967-72. The precipitation rates over the region were computed by using the flux convergence values and the equation of continuity for water vapour and were compared with the actual rainfall. The agreement between the computed precipitation and actual rainfall was found to be fairly close

Large-scale droughts/ floods and monsoon circulation.

An objective numerical drought index based on monthly monsoon rainfall and duration has been developed for assessment of drought intensity. The drought intensity equation serves the dual purpose of assessing the intensity of drought as well as flood. The Drought Area Index (DAI) is defined as the percentage area of India having a mean monsoon index ≤ −2 (i.e., moderate or higher drought severity). Likewise, the Flood Area Index (FAI) is the percentage area of India with mean monsoon index ≥ +2 (i.e., moderate or more severe wetness), where the mean monsoon index is the mean drought index for the four monsoon months. A year is defined as a large-scale drought or flood year when DAI or FAI ≥ 25. Using the evolved criteria, years of large-scale drought and flood over India have been identified during the period 1891–1975. The method adopted for defining large-scale drought or flood does bear out the actual experience. Power spectrum analysis reveals a weak triennial cycle in DAI series and a highly significant quasi-periodicity of 20 years in the FAI series—nearly a double sunspot cycle. The FAI series is in phase with the double sunspot cycle and large-scale floods have been more frequent in the high-amplitude maximum phase of sunspot cycle. Weaker meridional pressure gradients, larger northward seasonal shifts of the monsoon trough, larger numbers of days of breaks in the monsoon, smaller frequencies of depressions and shorter westward extents of depression tracks appear to be the major factors associated with large-scale droughts, opposite features have been observed for large-scale floods. The height of the 200 mb surface in May is found to be abnormally low in the latitude belt 15–30°N, along 70°E during large-scale drought years, in contrast to abnormally high levels during flood years. The 200 mb surface during May seems to have the potential for prediction of extreme abnormality in the following monsoon season