Exploring the Dynamic Radio Sky

Download or read book Exploring the Dynamic Radio Sky written by Kunal Mooley and published by . This book was released on 2015-10-02 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most of what is currently known about slow radio transients (supernovae, gamma-ray bursts, tidal disruption events, stellar flares, etc.) has come via radio follow-up of objects identified by synoptic survey telescopes at optical, X-ray or gamma-ray wavelengths. However, with the ability to capture obscured, unbeamed and magnetically-driven phenomena, radio surveys offer an opportunity to find unique cosmic transients and study their diagnostic features. This thesis describes the first systematic exploration of the dynamic radio sky on timescales between one day to several years using multi-epoch widefield surveys with the Karl G. Jansky Array (Jansky VLA). It announces the discovery of several fascinating transients that appear to be unique to the radio, and thus establishes the Jansky VLA as an efficient transient discovery machine. This thesis has enormous implications for designing efficient transient surveys during the era of the Square Kilometer Array (SKA), the demographics of variable radio sources including AGN, future searches of the radio counterparts of gravitational-wave sources, and the search for new classes of radio transients.