A Search for the Near-Infrared Counterpart to GCRT J1745–3009

We present an optical/near-infrared search for a counterpart to the perplexing radio transient GCRT J1745-3009, a source located [image]1 degree from the Galactic center. Motivated by some similarities to radio bursts from nearby ultracool dwarfs, and by a distance upper limit of [image] pc for the...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2008-11, Vol.687 (1), p.262-271
Main Authors: Kaplan, D. L, Hyman, S. D, Roy, S, Bandyopadhyay, R. M, Chakrabarty, D, Kassim, N. E, Lazio, T. J. W, Ray, P. S
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Astronomy
Earth, ocean, space
Exact sciences and technology
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Summary:We present an optical/near-infrared search for a counterpart to the perplexing radio transient GCRT J1745-3009, a source located [image]1 degree from the Galactic center. Motivated by some similarities to radio bursts from nearby ultracool dwarfs, and by a distance upper limit of [image] pc for the emission to not violate the [image] K brightness temperature limit for incoherent radiation, we searched for a nearby star at the position of GCRT J1745-3009. We found only a single marginal candidate, limiting the presence of any late-type star to >1 kpc (spectral types earlier than M9), >200 pc (spectral types L and T0-T4), and >100 pc (spectral types T4-T7), thus severely restricting the possible local counterparts to GCRT J1745-3009. We also exclude any white dwarf within [image] kpc or a supergiant star out to the distance of the Galactic center as possible counterparts. This implies that GCRT J1745-3009 likely requires a coherent emission process, although whether or not it reflects a new class of sources is unclear.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.1086/591436