A pilot ASKAP survey of radio transient events in the region around the intermittent pulsar PSR J1107-5907

We use observations from the Boolardy Engineering Test Array (BETA) of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope to search for transient radio sources in the field around the intermittent pulsar PSR J1107−5907. The pulsar is thought to switch between an ‘off’ state in which no emission is detectable, a weak state and a strong state. We ran three independent transient detection pipelines on two-minute snapshot images from a 13 h BETA observation in order to (1) study the emission from the pulsar, (2) search for other transient emission from elsewhere in the image and (3) to compare the results from the different transient detection pipelines. The pulsar was easily detected as a transient source and, over the course of the observations, it switched into the strong state three times giving a typical time-scale between the strong emission states of 3.7 h. After the first switch it remained in the strong state for almost 40 min. The other strong states lasted less than 4 min. The second state change was confirmed using observations with the Parkes radio telescope. No other transient events were found and we place constraints on the surface density of such events on these time-scales. The high sensitivity Parkes observations enabled us to detect individual bright pulses during the weak state and to study the strong state over a wide observing band. We conclude by showing that future transient surveys with ASKAP will have the potential to probe the intermittent pulsar population

A pilot ASKAP survey of radio transient events in the region around the intermittent pulsar PSR J1107-5907

We use observations from the Boolardy Engineering Test Array (BETA) of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope to search for transient radio sources in the field around the intermittent pulsar PSR J1107−5907. The pulsar is thought to switch between an ‘off’ state in which no emission is detectable, a weak state and a strong state. We ran three independent transient detection pipelines on two-minute snapshot images from a 13 h BETA observation in order to (1) study the emission from the pulsar, (2) search for other transient emission from elsewhere in the image and (3) to compare the results from the different transient detection pipelines. The pulsar was easily detected as a transient source and, over the course of the observations, it switched into the strong state three times giving a typical time-scale between the strong emission states of 3.7 h. After the first switch it remained in the strong state for almost 40 min. The other strong states lasted less than 4 min. The second state change was confirmed using observations with the Parkes radio telescope. No other transient events were found and we place constraints on the surface density of such events on these time-scales. The high sensitivity Parkes observations enabled us to detect individual bright pulses during the weak state and to study the strong state over a wide observing band. We conclude by showing that future transient surveys with ASKAP will have the potential to probe the intermittent pulsar population

Australian square kilometre array pathfinder : I. system description

In this paper, we describe the system design and capabilities of the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope at the conclusion of its construction project and commencement of science operations. ASKAP is one of the first radio telescopes to deploy phased array feed (PAF) technology on a large scale, giving it an instantaneous field of view that covers 31 deg(2) at 800MHz. As a two-dimensional array of 36x12 m antennas, with baselines ranging from 22 m to 6 km, ASKAP also has excellent snapshot imaging capability and 10 arcsec resolution. This, combined with 288 MHz of instantaneous bandwidth and a unique third axis of rotation on each antenna, gives ASKAP the capability to create high dynamic range images of large sky areas very quickly. It is an excellent telescope for surveys between 700 and 1800MHz and is expected to facilitate great advances in our understanding of galaxy formation, cosmology, and radio transients while opening new parameter space for discovery of the unknown