Radio observation of the X-ray pulsar XTE J1946+274 with VLA
ATel #16766; Shobha Kumari (MCC), Sabyasachi Pal (MCC), Manoj Mandal (MCC)
on 11 Aug 2024; 17:08 UT
Credential Certification: Manoj Mandal (manojmandal@mcconline.org.in)
Subjects: Radio, Neutron Star, Star, Transient, Pulsar
The transient Be/X-ray binary pulsar XTE J1946+274 went into an outburst as observed in X-ray using MAXI/GSC (ATel #16717) and also detected in the optical by KAIT and SVOM/C-GFT (ATel #16720, #16722) in July 2024. Following the X-ray detection of an outburst from XTE J1946+274 (ATel #16717, #16719, #16723, #16744), we triggered radio observation with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) on 9th August 2024 (MJD 60531) between 08:32:00 and 09:31:45 (UTC) with the VLA-B configuration at a central frequency of 6 GHz with a bandwidth of 4 GHz in the C-band (4−8 GHz).
For flux and phase calibrators, we used 3C 48 and J2023+3153, respectively. The data was calibrated and imaged using the Common Astronomy Software Application (CASA) with the VLA data reduction pipeline. We used Briggs weighting with a robustness of zero during the imaging. The preliminary result indicates that the rms noise near the position of the source is 3.7 μJy with a synthesized beam of 1.24″ × 0.97″. The flux at the position of the source is measured as 9.3 μJy. The source is marginally detected (∼3σ) with VLA at radio wavelengths at central frequency 6 GHz. The position of the radio peak of the source is RA 19h45m39.33s ± 0.02s, DEC 27°21′55.4″ ± 0.18″ which is consistent with the Gaia position of the source (Gaia Collaboration, 2021, A&A, 649, A1).
We thank the NRAO staff for providing DDT observation time and supporting this observation.
