The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: Systematic Transient Search of 3 Day Maps

We conduct a systematic search for transients in 3 yr of data (2017-2019) from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT). ACT covers 40% of the sky at three bands spanning from 77-277 GHz. Analysis of 3 day mean-subtracted sky maps, which were match filtered for point sources, yielded 29 transient detections. Eight of these transients are due to known asteroids, and three others were previously published. Four of these events occur in areas with poor noise models and thus we cannot be confident they are real transients. We are left with 14 new transient events occurring at 11 unique locations. All of these events are associated with either rotationally variable stars or cool stars. Ten events have flat or falling spectra indicating radiation from synchrotron emission. One event has a rising spectrum indicating a different engine for the flare.

Duke Scholars

Author Eve M Vavagiakis Physics