ATCA follow-up of unidentified flaring Fermi gamma-ray sources
Abstract
This NAPA proposal will be triggered by the detection of a gamma-ray flare with the Large Area Telescope on the Fermi gamma-ray satellite. The Fermi team will identify bright sources flaring on day-timescales to trigger ATCA observations for southern sources for which no counterpart is known, which we expect to occur predominantly for sources with |b|<1.5degrees. As Fermi source localizations are often better than 10arcmin, we will initially make simultaneous 5GHz/9GHz observation, for which the primary beam is matched to the Fermi error region. If a radio counterpart can be identified, we will make follow-up observations at higher frequencies to help characterise the Spectral Energy Distribution of the source, and to monitor the evolution of the outburst at radio frequencies. History indicates this rapid localization and follow-up of flaring sources may well be critical in identifying a new class (or classes) of high energy object.
- Publication:
-
ATNF Proposal
- Pub Date:
- July 2009
- Bibcode:
- 2009atnf.prop.2459C
- Keywords:
-
- Galactic;
- Extragalactic;
- ATCA