[vsnet-campaign-dn 4440] ROTSE-III CVs report

[Taichi Kato]

ROTSE-III CVs report

  An official report on CVs recently discovered with ROTSE-III:

Paper: astro-ph/0506442
Date: Sun, 19 Jun 2005 20:05:56 GMT   (40kb)

Title: A Search for Untriggered GRB Afterglows with ROTSE-III
Authors: E. S. Rykoff, F. Aharonian, C. W. Akerlof, K. Alatalo, M. C. B.
  Ashley, T. Guver, D. Horns, R. L. Kehoe, U. Kiziloglu, T. A. McKay, M. Ozel,
  A. Phillips, R. M. Quimby, B. E. Schaefer, D. A. Smith, H. F. Swan, W. T.
  Vestrand, J. C. Wheeler, J. Wren, S. A. Yost
Comments: Seven pages, five figures, uses emulateapj class file. Accepted to
  Astrophysical Journal
\\
  We present the results of a search for untriggered gamma-ray burst (GRB)
afterglows with the Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment-III (ROTSE-III)
telescope array. This search covers observations from September 2003 to March
2005. We have an effective coverage of 1.74 deg^2 yr for rapidly fading
transients that remain brighter than ~ 17.5 magnitude for more than 30 minutes.
This search is the first large area survey to be able to detect typical
untriggered GRB afterglows. Our background rate is very low and purely
astrophysical. We have found 4 previously unknown cataclysmic variables (CVs)
and 1 new flare star. We have not detected any candidate afterglow events or
other unidentified transients. We can place an upper limit on the rate of
fading optical transients with quiescent counterparts dimmer than ~ 20th
magnitude at a rate of less than 1.9 deg^-2 yr-1 with 95% confidence. This
places limits on the optical characteristics of off-axis (orphan) GRB
afterglows. As a byproduct of this search, we have an effective ~ 52 deg^2 yr
of coverage for very slowly decaying transients, such as CVs. This implies an
overall rate of outbursts from high galactic latitude CVs of 0.1 deg^2 yr^-1.
\\ ( http://arXiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0506442 ,  40kb)