MeerTRAP: Twelve Galactic fast transients detected in a real-time, commensal MeerKAT survey

TL;DR

MeerTRAP is a real-time, commensal survey using MeerKAT that discovered twelve Galactic fast radio transients, with follow-up observations confirming repeat pulses and enabling precise localization of some sources.

Contribution

This work presents the first twelve Galactic fast radio transients detected by MeerTRAP, demonstrating real-time detection, follow-up, and localization techniques in a large-scale radio survey.

Findings

Discovered twelve Galactic fast radio transients with DMs of 33-381 pc cm$^{-3}$

Detected repeat pulses from seven sources through follow-up observations

Localized four sources to arcsecond precision using a novel tied-array beam method

Abstract

MeerTRAP is a real-time untargeted search project using the MeerKAT telescope to find single pulses from fast radio transients and pulsars. It is performed commensally with the MeerKAT large survey projects (LSPs), using data from up to 64 of MeerKAT's 13.96~m dishes to form hundreds of coherent beams on sky, each of which is processed in real time to search for millisecond-duration pulses. We present the first twelve Galactic sources discovered by MeerTRAP, with DMs in the range of 33--381~pc~cm$^{-3}$. One source may be Galactic or extragalactic depending on the Galactic electron density model assumed. Follow-up observations performed with the MeerKAT, Lovell, and Parkes radio telescopes have detected repeat pulses from seven of the twelve sources. Pulse periods have been determined for four sources. Another four sources could be localised to the arcsecond-level using a novel implementation of the tied-array beam localisation method.