Limits on long-time-scale radio transients at 150 MHz using the TGSS ADR1 and LoTSS DR2 catalogues

TL;DR

This study searches for long-term radio transients at 150 MHz by comparing two large sky surveys over 2-9 years, developing a new method to identify transient sources despite imaging artefacts, but finds no transients and sets an upper limit on their surface density.

Contribution

The paper introduces a novel comparison method for radio survey catalogues that accounts for artefacts and flux scale variations, improving transient detection accuracy.

Findings

No transient sources detected in the survey area.

Established an upper limit on transient surface density at 150 MHz.

Developed a universally applicable transient search methodology.

Abstract

We present a search for transient radio sources on timescales of 2 to 9 yr at 150 MHz. This search is conducted by comparing the first Alternative Data Release of the TIFR GMRT Sky Survey (TGSS ADR1) and the second data release of the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS DR2). The overlapping survey area covers 5570 $\rm{deg}^2$ on the sky, or 14 per cent of the total sky. We introduce a method to compare the source catalogues that involves a pair match of sources, a flux density cutoff to meet the survey completeness limit and a newly developed compactness criterion. This method is used to identify both transient candidates in the TGSS source catalogue that have no counterpart in the LoTSS catalogue and transient candidates in LoTSS without a counterpart in TGSS. We find that imaging artefacts and uncertainties and variations in the flux density scales complicate the transient search. Our method to search for transients by comparing two different surveys, while taking into account imaging artefacts around bright sources and misaligned flux scales between surveys, is universally applicable to future radio transient searches. No transient sources were identified, but we are able to place an upper limit on the transient surface density of $<5.4 \cdot 10^{-4}\ \text{deg}^{-2}$ at 150 MHz for compact sources with an integrated flux density over 100 mJy. Here we define a transient as a compact source with flux density greater than 100 mJy that appears in the catalogue of one survey without a counterpart in the other survey.