An optical search for transients lasting a few seconds. (6th December 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Richmond, Michael W; Tanaka, Masaomi; Morokuma, Tomoki; Sako, Shigeyuki; Ohsawa, Ryou; Arima, Noriaki; Tominaga, Nozomu; Doi, Mamoru; Aoki, Tsutomu; Arimatsu, Ko; Ichiki, Makoto; Ikeda, Shiro; Ita, Yoshifusa; Kasuga, Toshihiro; Kawabata, Koji S; Kawakita, Hideyo; Kobayashi, Naoto; Kokubo, Mitsuru; Konishi, Masahiro; Maehara, Hiroyuki; Mito, Hiroyuki; Miyata, Takashi; Mori, Yuki; Morii, Mikio; Motohara, Kentaro; Nakada, Yoshikazu; Okumura, Shin-Ichiro; Onozato, Hiroki; Sarugaku, Yuki; Sato, Mikiya; Shigeyama, Toshikazu; Soyano, Takao; Takahashi, Hidenori; Tanikawa, Ataru; Tarusawa, Ken'ichi; Urakawa, Seitaro; Usui, Fumihiko; Watanabe, Junichi; Yamashita, Takuya; Yoshikawa, Makoto;
• Is Part Of: Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan. Volume 72:Number 1(2020:Feb.)
• Publication Date: 2019-12-06
• Subjects: methods: observational; Astronomy -- Periodicals; 520.5
• DOI: 10.1093/pasj/psz120
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0004-6264

Abstract

Abstract: Using a prototype of the Tomo-e Gozen wide-field CMOS mosaic camera, we acquire wide-field optical images at a cadence of $2\:$ Hz and search them for transient sources of duration 1.5 to $11.5\:$ s. Over the course of eight nights, our survey encompasses the equivalent of roughly two days on one square degree, to a fluence equivalent to a limiting magnitude of about $V = 15.6$ in a 1-s exposure. After examining by-eye the candidates identified by a software pipeline, we find no sources which meet all our criteria. We compute upper limits to the rate of optical transients consistent with our survey, and compare those to the rates expected and observed for representative sources of ephemeral optical light.