A Southern Sky Survey with Fermi LAT and ASKAP

TL;DR

This paper discusses the potential for a joint gamma-ray and radio survey of southern sky sources using Fermi LAT and ASKAP, highlighting survey capabilities, science goals, and strategies for source identification.

Contribution

It introduces the planned joint survey approach combining Fermi LAT and ASKAP data, emphasizing ASKAP's high survey speed and its role in transient source detection and counterpart identification.

Findings

ASKAP will perform high-speed radio surveys at GHz frequencies.

The VAST survey aims to detect transients from 5 seconds to years.

Strategies for correlating gamma-ray and radio transient sources are outlined.

Abstract

We present the prospects for a future joint gamma-ray and radio survey of southern hemisphere sources using the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) and the upcoming Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP) radio telescope. ASKAP is a next generation radio telescope designed to perform surveys at GHz frequencies at a much higher survey speed than previous radio telescopes, and is scheduled to start engineering observations in 2011. The survey capabilities of both Fermi LAT and ASKAP are described, and the planned science surveys for ASKAP are summarized. We give some expected details of the Variable and Slow Transient (VAST) survey using ASKAP, which will search for transients on timescales from 5 seconds to years. Some observational properties of faint and transient sources seen at gamma-ray and radio wavelengths are summarized, and prospects and strategies for using ASKAP survey data for LAT source counterpart identification are summarized.