arXiv subjects

Joshua Pritchard

Publications and source records attributed to Joshua Pritchard.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Year-timescale changes in AGN radio luminosity as seen by the ASKAP Variables and Slow Transients Survey

A few dozen previously radio-quiet active galactic nuclei (AGN) have been observed to transition to radio-loud at 1-3 GHz frequencies over timescales of more than a decade, and this has has been interpreted to be due to newly launched jets. We identified 101 compact radio sources out of a sample of 64,972 non-blazar AGN which increased in flux density by 80-1800% over 1-6 years in the 887.5 MHz Australian SKA Pathfinder Variables and Slow Transients survey. We obtained optical spectra and radio SEDs using new observations and archival survey data. We determined 60 sources were consistent with extrinsic variability due to refractive interstellar scintillation and 41 were variable due to intrinsic causes, with 26 continuously brightening and two transitioning from radio-quiet to radio-loud. We concluded that young radio jets launched by either tidal disruption events or changes in the accretion properties were responsible for the continuously brightening AGN. These sources were non-variable at higher frequencies over the same time period, as expected for an expanding emission region. Fourteen sources had inverted or peaked SEDs initially which either flattened below the turnover or evolved into steep SEDs, consistent with young, expanding jets. Twelve sources had non-variable steep or gigahertz-peaked SEDs, which suggested these hosted more slowly evolving jets. We investigated the previously discovered AGN with newly launched jets, and found several have faded at multiple frequencies, which suggested the observed radio-loudness was temporary, rather than the onset of a sustained period of radio activity.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

Radio Properties of RS Canum Venaticorum Variables in VLASS and RACS

We performed a systematic search for radio emission from RS Canum Venaticorum (RS CVn) binaries, selected from the International Variable Star Index (VSX) catalog, in the Very Large Array Sky Survey (VLASS; three epochs) and Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS; two epochs) data. We detected 108 candidate radio-emitting RS CVn in at least one epoch. Several of these systems rank among the most radio-luminous RS CVn binaries reported to date. The radio and X-ray luminosities, obtained from cross-matching with the eROSITA and ROSAT X-ray catalogs, are consistent with the Guedel-Benz relation for magnetically active stars, but are also comparable to radio-luminous quiescent black hole X-ray binaries, indicating a potential for misidentification between these two classes. Analysis of optical, radio, and stellar properties indicates that optically bright RS CVn (i.e., those with at least one giant component) are radio-quieter and have periods that are consistent with lower coronal activity. However, two of these optically bright RS CVn systems show persistent and unusually high radio specific luminosities (>2e17 erg/s/Hz) across all observed epochs, showing that stellar activity can produce relatively persistent radio signals as bright as quiescent black hole binaries.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2026

First monitoring campaign of a Main-sequence Radio Pulse emitter: the case of CU Vir

CU Vir, a magnetic hot star, is the first discovered Main-sequence Radio Pulse emitter (MRP) characterized by its ability to produce periodic radio pulses via electron cyclotron maser emission. Although significant advancements have been made in understanding MRPs, their temporal properties remain mostly unexplored. To overcome this limitation, we conducted a pilot study with the Australia Telescope Compact Array, in which we observed pulses from CU Vir at 36 epochs over $1-3$ GHz. In this frequency range, CU Vir produces two $\approx 100\%$ circularly polarized pulses, called `leading' and `trailing' pulses per rotation period. We find significant differences in the variability indices exhibited by the two pulses as a function of frequencies, with the leading pulse showing higher variability throughout our observing band. This result could be explained in the scenario of centrifugal breakout events in the magnetosphere of an oblique rotator causing correlated fluctuations across frequencies, along with intrinsic instabilities associated with coherent emission. In addition, we discover jittering in the arrival phases of pulses that must be considered in future monitoring campaigns. The pulses also exhibit a systematic shift to later arrival times during the course of our observing campaign, allowing us to refine the rotation period to $0.5206882$ days. Finally, we estimate that $\sim 30$ pulses will be needed to extract global pulse properties for the leading or trailing pulses. This relatively small number strongly motivates more extensive monitoring campaigns of MRPs, both to validate our results, and also to pinpoint the origin of the observed temporal variations.

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arXiv2026

The Variability of Radio Stars

Stellar radio emission is highly variable with stellar flares lasting from milliseconds to hours. For some stars, their flares or bursts can repeat once every couple of hours, while other stars may flare only once in hundreds of hours of observing. Some stars and stellar systems vary slowly over months to years. In this chapter we present the current methods for identifying radio stars and the important role that variability plays in these detection methods. We highlight that radio stars are the second most common radio variable object in image-plane searches for radio variable sources. We also present our predictions for the number of stars both the SKA-mid and SKA-low AA$^{*}$ arrays could detect based on searches using SKA pathfinders and precursors.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2026

VASTER: The ASKAP real-time fast-imaging pipeline -- overview and discovery of two long period transients

Recent developments in widefield radio telescopes have enabled searches of a new region of parameter space in the time domain: timescales of seconds to minutes, that have been overlooked in traditional surveys. These searches have revealed a new population of sources: long period transients, which typically show periodic behaviour of minutes to hours. In addition they have detected phenomena ranging from extreme scintillation to stellar radio bursts. However, almost all searches to date have involved archival data that has been processed in offline, batch mode. In this context, we present VASTER, the first short-timescale imaging and transient detection pipeline running in real time on a widefield radio telescope. VASTER has been running on the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) since July 2025, and images most of the ASKAP survey project data on timescales of 15 minutes. In this paper we describe the VASTER system, and present the results from the first two weeks of operation, including the discovery of two long period transients: ASKAP~J165130.3$-$450520 with a period of 6.48 hours and ASKAP~J170036.6$-$445758 with a period of 4.69 hours. The detection of these two sources adds to the small, but growing, population of long period transients, as well as demonstrating the potential of VASTER to explore this region of transient parameter space.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2026

The Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS) VIII: total intensity and circular polarization images and catalogues at 887.5 MHz from RACS-low2

We present a new data release from the Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS), a widefield snapshot radio survey conducted with the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP). This data release contains the second RACS epoch to make use of ASKAP's low-frequency band, centred on 887.5 MHz with a bandwidth of 288 MHz, referred to as RACS-low2. This RACS-low2 data release includes both Stokes I and V imaging and catalogue data products covering the whole sky up to a declination of ~+48 degrees. RACS-low2 largely follows the observation footprint of the first low-band epoch, though includes additional coverage in the Northern Hemisphere. The observation scheduling and data processing follow previous RACS epochs, making use of autonomous scheduling and holography-derived primary beam models. The Stokes I and V catalogues are derived from images with a median point-spread function (PSF) of 14.2" times 11.8", and have median root-mean-square noise properties of 195 and 163 micro-Jy/PSF, for the Stokes I and V images, respectively. The consolidated Stokes I catalogue contains 3922151 sources. We also constructed a catalogue of Stokes V sources by measuring Stokes V images at the Stokes I source positions. For the 221 Stokes V measurements above the estimated leakage and detection thresholds we provide likely identifications, including detections of 61 radio stars, 85 pulsars, 43 AGN (many likely to be residual leakage), and one source that is not associated with a known astronomical object. These data products, including calibrated visibilities, images, source lists, and consolidated catalogues, are made publicly available through the CSIRO ASKAP Science Data Archive (CASDA).

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2026

Periodic Radio and X-ray Emission from an Accreting White Dwarf Binary

Long period radio transients (LPTs) are coherent bursts of polarised radio emission that repeat periodically on timescales of minutes to hours. Little is known about the physical origins of these systems. Astronomers have proposed magnetars that rotate slowly and white dwarfs that rapidly orbit with a companion star as potential explanations. While several recent examples appear to support the latter hypothesis, the mechanism generating these bright radio pulses remains poorly understood. Here we report our discovery and classification of the LPT ASKAP J174508.9-505149 as an accreting white dwarf binary. This object has a ~1.3h spectroscopic orbital period and exhibits orbitally-modulated X-ray emission and radio bursts. These elliptically polarised radio bursts drift in emission frequency, potentially due to a longer beat period, and turn off for several hours at a time. Some long period radio transients have been associated with non-interacting white dwarf binaries. We have spectroscopically confirmed this system as an accreting cataclysmic variable, identified through characteristic optical emission lines and an ongoing X-ray outburst. Our results strengthen the link between at least some long period radio transients and white dwarf binaries.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

A sample of short-lived Galactic radio transients from ASKAP VAST

Galactic radio transients (GRTs) are mysterious short-lived (~days to months) radio transients that are quiet at all other wavelengths. Until now, roughly half a dozen such sources have been reported, predominantly towards the Galactic center. However, no unifying properties have been identified among these, leaving their nature, emission mechanism, and even classification poorly understood. Due to the lack of periodic and uniform radio observations over wide areas of the Galactic plane until now, the sample size of such transients remained limited. Here, we use radio observations from the Australian SKA Pathfinder's Variables and Slow Transients survey to discover six new radio transients along the Galactic plane that resemble GRTs. Detailed investigation of archival data suggests that these sources may be divided into two classes: sources that exhibit sporadic, pulse-like (minutes) radio emission, and sources that exhibit long-term (weeks) flaring-type radio emission. For the short-time variable sources, we draw similarities between optically bright long-period radio transients and our sample to propose wide-orbit (~days) white dwarf binaries as underlying sources. For sources that show long-term outbursts, we draw comparisons between dust-obscured outbursts from WD binaries and our sample. These results could imply that the ongoing wide-field radio surveys are uncovering radio emission from sub-populations of WD binaries that were previously unexplored.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

Discovery of a 36-minute long-period transient ASKAP J142431.2-612611

We report the discovery of a new long-period radio transient, ASKAP J142431.2-612611, with a 36 minute period, identified in the Australian SKA Pathfinder Evolutionary Map of the Universe survey. We detected pulsed emission from ASKAP J142431.2-612611 over a period of eight days during follow-up observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array, after which the source appears to have switched off. No optical or near-infrared counterpart is detected in archival surveys or in targeted Gemini South FLAMINGOS-2 observations. During its active state, the source exhibits a stable pulse profile with fractional polarisation consistent with 100%, evolving from elliptically to linearly polarised and tracing a well-defined great-circle trajectory on the Poincar\'e sphere. We show that this behaviour is consistent with fully linearly polarised intrinsic emission modified by propagation through a linearly polarised birefringent medium. This discovery expands the known population of long-period transients and highlights the intermittent nature of their activity. We discuss the implications for proposed models of long-period transients and outline future observations needed to constrain the origin of their intermittency and polarisation properties.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2026

The ASKAP Variables and Slow Transients (VAST) Extragalactic Survey - Data Release 1

The Variables and Slow Transients (VAST) Survey on the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) is designed to systematically explore the dynamic radio sky, detecting sources that vary on timescales from minutes to several years. In this paper, we present Data Release 1 of the VAST Extragalactic Survey, which targets slowly evolving synchrotron transients in the southern sky. The observations were carried out between June 2023 and May 2025, comprising 2945 images of 276 fields spanning $\sim 12300\ \mathrm{deg}^2$, observed at 888 MHz with a typical rms sensitivity of 0.24 mJy $\rm{beam}^{-1}$ and 12-20 arcsec resolution. Each field was revisited approximately every two months, yielding 10 or 11 observations per field. The VAST pipeline extracts the light curves for all the observed sources, and additional filters are implemented to improve the reliability of the resulting light curve database. The light curve database contains 0.5 million sources and 6.4 million individual measurements, publicly available through the CSIRO data access portal. An untargeted variability search yields 117 astrophysical variables, including 27 pulsars, 40 radio stars (10 newly detected at radio wavelengths), 44 active galactic nuclei, two optically identified supernovae, one supernova candidate, one brown dwarf, and two sources without multi-wavelength counterparts that are yet to be identified. This data release provides the first large-scale, high-cadence, uniform view of long-term radio variability in the extragalactic sky and lays the groundwork for future population studies of radio transients with ASKAP.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2026

ASKAP J005512.2-255834: A Luminous, Long-Lived Radio Transient at z = 0.1 -- an Orphan Afterglow or an off-nuclear TDE from an IMBH?

We report the discovery of a slowly evolving, extragalactic radio transient, ASKAP J005512.2--255834 (hereafter ASKAP J0055-2558), identified using the Australian SKA Pathfinder in a search for orphan afterglows associated with archival gravitational wave events. Although discovered in this context, there is no evidence that the transient is associated with any known gravitational wave event. Nonetheless, this source exhibits a 20-fold increase in flux density over $<250$ days, and it remains in a declining, detectable state more than 1000 days after the initial detection. Follow-up observations from 0.3 to 9 GHz reveal an evolving spectrum consistent with synchrotron emission. ASKAP J0055-2558 is spatially coincident with a low-mass, star-forming galaxy at redshift $z = 0.116$ ($d_{\rm L}$= 543 Mpc), placing its peak radio luminosity at $\nu L_\nu \sim 10^{39}\,\rm erg\,s^{-1}$. Analysis of its radio light curve, inferred blastwave velocity, energetics, host galaxy properties and the absence of counterparts at other wavelengths suggest that ASKAP J0055-2558 is most consistent with either the late-time phase of an orphan long gamma-ray burst afterglow or a tidal disruption event involving an intermediate-mass black hole spatially offset from the galaxy nucleus. The radio discovery of either of these phenomena is extremely rare, with only a few or no confirmed examples to date.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Searching for Long-Period Radio Transients in ASKAP EMU Data with 10-Second Imaging

Long-period radio transients (LPTs) are a recently identified phenomenon that challenge our current understanding of compact objects and coherent radio emission mechanisms. These objects emit radio pulses similar to those of pulsars, but at much longer periods -- on the order of minutes to hours. With duty cycles of only a few percent, individual pulses have been observed to last between 10 and 1000 seconds. This places LPTs in a timescale gap between the two main techniques used in transient radio searches: time-series analysis at millisecond to second timescales, and image-plane searches sensitive to variability on the scale of days. As a result, LPTs remained undetected until recently, and only a handful are currently known. To increase the sample of known LPTs, we conducted a dedicated search using 200 hours of archival data from the ASKAP Evolutionary Map of the Universe survey, covering 750 deg$^2$ of sky at the shortest possible imaging time step of 10-seconds. This represents the first large-scale search using ASKAP data at second-scale resolution. Although no LPTs were detected, we identified flares from six stars, at least one had never been detected in the radio regime before. We placed a lower limit on the transient surface density of $2.21\times10^{-6}$ deg$^{-2}$ at a 10-second timescale, with a sensitivity of 16.9 mJy. Our findings evaluate the feasibility of detecting radio transients using 10-second imaging with ASKAP and provide insights into improving detection pipelines and observation strategies for LPTs.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

Sensitive Constraints on Coherent Radio Emission from Five Isolated White Dwarfs

Coherent, periodic radio emission from pulsars has been widely interpreted as evidence of neutron stars as strongly magnetized compact objects. In recent years, radio pulses have also been detected from white dwarfs (WDs) in tight binary systems, raising the question of whether isolated WDs could similarly host pulsar-like emission. We conducted the most sensitive search to date for coherent radio signals from five isolated, rapidly rotating, and magnetized WDs, using the Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical radio Telescope (FAST), the Green Bank Telescope (GBT), and the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). No pulsed or continuum radio emission was detected down to $\mu$Jy levels. These non-detections place the most stringent observational constraints yet on the existence of isolated WD pulsars. Our results suggest that either such emission is intrinsically weak, narrowly beamed, or requires binary-induced magnetospheric interactions absent in solitary systems. Comparison with the known radio-emitting WDs highlights the critical role of companion interaction in enabling detectable emission. This work expands on prior surveys by targeting sources with the most favorable physical conditions for WD pulsar-like activity and employing highly sensitive, targeted observations. Future observations with next-generation facilities such as the SKA will be essential to explore fainter or sporadic emission from massive, magnetic WDs and to investigate their potential as compact radio transients further.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

ASKAP J144834-685644: a newly discovered long period radio transient detected from radio to X-rays

Long-period radio transients (LPTs) are an emerging group of radio transients that show periodic polarized radio bursts with periods varying from a few minutes to a few hours. Fewer than a dozen LPTs have been detected so far, and their origin (source and emission mechanism) remains unclear. Here, we report the discovery of a 1.5 h LPT, ASKAP J144834-685644, adding to the current sample of sources. ASKAP J144834-685644 is one of the very few LPTs that has been detected from X-rays to radio. It shows a steep radio spectrum and polarized radio bursts, which resemble the radio emission in known LPTs. In addition, it also shows highly structured and periodic narrow-band radio emission. Multiwavelength properties suggest that the spectral energy distribution (SED) peaks at near ultraviolet wavelengths, indicating the presence of a hot magnetic source. Combining multiwavelength information, we infer that ASKAP J144834-685644 may be a near edge-on magnetic white dwarf binary (MWD), although we cannot fully rule out ASKAP J144834-685644 being an isolated white dwarf pulsar or even a transitional millisecond pulsar (despite the lack of radio pulsations). If ASKAP J144834-685644 is a MWD binary, the observed broad-band SED can be explained by emission from an accretion disc. This hints that some fraction of optically bright LPTs may be accreting binaries with the radio period being the orbital period. It might further suggest a connection between optically bright synchronized WD binaries, such as polars, and non-accreting asynchronous WD pulsars, such as AR Sco and J1912-4410.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2025

VAST-MeMeS: Characterising non-thermal radio emission from magnetic massive stars using the Australian SKA Pathfinder

Magnetic massive stars are stars of spectral types O, B and A that harbour $\sim$ kG strength (mostly dipolar) surface magnetic fields. Their non-thermal radio emission has been demonstrated to be an important magnetospheric probe, provided the emission is fully characterised. A necessary step for that is to build a statistically significant sample of radio-bright magnetic massive stars. In this paper, we present the `VAST project to study Magnetic Massive Stars' or VAST-MeMeS that aims to achieve that by taking advantage of survey data acquired with the Australian SKA Pathfinder telescope. VAST-MeMeS is defined under the `VAriable and Slow Transient' (VAST) survey, although it also uses data from other ASKAP surveys. We found radio detections from 48 magnetic massive stars, out of which, 14 do not have any prior radio detections. We also identified 9 `Main-sequence Radio Pulse Emitter' candidates based on variability and circular polarisation of flux densities. The expanded sample suggests a slightly lower efficiency in the radio production than that reported in earlier work. In addition to significantly expanding the sample of radio-bright magnetic massive stars, the addition of flux density measurements at $\lesssim 1$ GHz revealed that the spectra of incoherent radio emission can extend to much lower frequencies than that assumed in the past. In the future, radio observations spanning wide frequency and rotational phase ranges should be conducted so as to reduce the uncertainties in the incoherent radio luminosities. The results from these campaigns, supplemented with precise estimations of stellar parameters, will allow us to fully understand particle acceleration and non-thermal radio production in large-scale stellar magnetospheres.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2025

Discovery of Main-sequence Radio Pulse emitters from widefield sky surveys

Magnetic AB stars are known to produce periodic radio pulses by the electron cyclotron maser emission (ECME) mechanism. Only 19 such stars, known as 'Main-sequence Radio Pulse emitters' (MRPs) are currently known. The majority of MRPs have been discovered through targeted observation campaigns that involve carefully selecting a sample of stars that are likely to produce ECME, and which can be detected by a given telescope within reasonable amount of time. These selection criteria inadvertently introduce bias in the resulting sample of MRPs, which affects subsequent investigation of the relation between ECME properties and stellar magnetospheric parameters. The alternative is to use all-sky surveys. Until now, MRP candidates obtained from surveys were identified based on their high circular polarisation ($\gtrsim 30\%$). In this paper, we introduce a complementary strategy, which does not require polarisation information. Using multi-epoch data from the Australian SKA Pathfinder (ASKAP) telescope, we identify four MRP candidates based on the variability in the total intensity light curves. Follow-up observations with the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA) confirm three of them to be MRPs, thereby demonstrating the effectiveness of our strategy. With the expanded sample, we find that ECME is affected by temperature and the magnetic field strength, consistent with past results. There is, however, a degeneracy regarding how the two parameters govern the ECME luminosity for magnetic A and late-B stars (effective temperature $\lesssim 16$ kK). The current sample is also inadequate to investigate the role of stellar rotation, which has been shown to play a key role in driving incoherent radio emission.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2024

Detection of X-ray Emission from a Bright Long-Period Radio Transient

Recently, a class of long-period radio transients (LPTs) has been discovered, exhibiting emission on timescales thousands of times longer than radio pulsars. Several models had been proposed implicating either a strong magnetic field neutron star, isolated white dwarf pulsar, or a white dwarf binary system with a low-mass companion. While several models for LPTs also predict X-ray emission, no LPTs have been detected in X-rays despite extensive searches. Here we report the discovery of an extremely bright LPT (10-20 Jy in radio), ASKAP J1832-0911, which has coincident radio and X-ray emission, both with a 44.2-minute period. The X-ray and radio luminosities are correlated and vary by several orders of magnitude. These properties are unique amongst known Galactic objects and require a new explanation. We consider a $\gtrsim0.5$ Myr old magnetar with a $\gtrsim 10^{13}$ G crustal field, or an extremely magnetised white dwarf in a binary system with a dwarf companion, to be plausible explanations for ASKAP J1832-0911, although both explanations pose significant challenges to formation and emission theories. The X-ray detection also establishes a new class of hour-scale periodic X-ray transients of luminosity $\sim10^{33}$ erg/s associated with exceptionally bright coherent radio emission.

astro-ph.HE↗

arXiv2024

Radio afterglows from tidal disruption events: An unbiased sample from ASKAP RACS

Late-time ($\sim$ year) radio follow-up of optically-discovered tidal disruption events (TDEs) is increasingly resulting in detections at radio wavelengths, and there is growing evidence for this late-time radio activity to be common to the broad class of sub-relativistic TDEs. Detailed studies of some of these TDEs at radio wavelengths are also challenging the existing models for radio emission. Using all-sky multi-epoch data from the Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder (ASKAP), taken as a part of the Rapid ASKAP Continuum Survey (RACS), we searched for radio counterparts to a sample of optically-discovered TDEs. We detected late-time emission at RACS frequencies (742-1032\,MHz) in five TDEs, reporting the independent discovery of radio emission from TDE AT2019ahk and extending the time baseline out to almost 3000\,days for some events. Overall, we find that at least $22^{+15}_{-11}$\% of the population of optically-discovered TDEs has detectable radio emission in the RACS survey, while also noting that the true fraction can be higher given the limited cadence (2 epochs separated by $\sim 3\,$ years) of the survey. Finally, we project that the ongoing higher-cadence ($\sim 2$\,months) ASKAP Variable and Slow Transients (VAST) survey can detect $\sim 20$ TDEs in its operational span (4\,yrs), given the current rate from optical surveys.

astro-ph.HE↗