An all-sky survey of circular polarisation at 200 MHz

Abstract

We present results from the first all-sky radio survey in circular polarisation. The survey uses the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA) to cover 30900 sq. deg., over declinations south of +30$^{\circ}$ and north of -86$^{\circ}$ centred at 200 MHz (over a 169-231 MHz band). We achieve a spatial resolution of approx. 3' and a typical sensitivity of 3.0 mJy PSF$^{-1}$ over most of the survey region. We demonstrate a new leakage mitigation technique that reduces the leakage from total intensity into circular polarisation by an order of magnitude. In a blind survey of the imaged region, we detect 14 pulsars in circular polarisation above a 6$σ$ threshold. We also detect six transient sources associated with artificial satellites. A targeted survey of 2376 pulsars within the surveyed region yielded 33 detections above $4σ$. Looking specifically at pulsars previously detected at 200 MHz in total intensity, this represents a 35% detection rate. We also conducted a targeted survey of 2400 known flare stars, this resulted in two tentative detections above $4σ$. A similar targeted search for 1506 known exoplanets in the field yielded no detections above $4σ$. The success of the survey suggests that similar surveys at longer wavelength bands and of deeper fields are warranted.

16 pages, 11 figures, accepted for publication in MNRAS