Illustration of a radio telescope detecting transient pulses.

Hunting FRBs and Transients with MeerTRAP

Abstract:

MeerTRAP (more TRAnsients and Pulsars) is a fully commensal program running on the MeerKAT telescope to search for transients including FRBs and radio emitting neutron stars. It utilises the excellent sensitivity and wide bandwidth of the MeerKAT telescope to enable it to see faint/distant sources both inside and outside our Galaxy. I will describe the MeerTRAP experiment including our real time analysis systems and our transient buffer which allows us to localise FRBs. I will present some highlights of the FRBs that we have discovered so far including some which have been localised and have associated (high) host galaxy redshifts. I will also present some results on the two repeating FRBs that we have identified. MeerTRAP works with the MeerLICHT optical telescope to undertake simultaneous observations and I will present the latest results from those studies. MeerTRAP has also discovered more than 100 new Galactic transients and I will summarise their properties and discuss some of the particularly interesting sources, especially those with longer than typical pulsar spin periods. I will also present the detection of a particularly interesting Galactic transient.