Swift J1753.5-012: probable radio counterpart
ATel #558; Rob Fender (Southampton), Simon Garrington (Manchester), Tom Muxlow (Manchester)
on 7 Jul 2005; 13:09 UT
Credential Certification: Rob Fender (rpf@phys.soton.ac.uk)
Subjects: Radio, Binary, Black Hole, Neutron Star, Transient
We report the probable discovery of the radio counterpart to
the new X-ray transient Swift J1753.5-0127 (ATEL#546,#547), in
observations with the Multi-Element Radio-Linked Interferometer
Network (MERLIN). MERLIN (+Lovell telescope) observed for ~8 hours on 2005 July 3, at
1.7 GHz, at the position of the optical counterpart reported by
Halpern (ATEL#549). We detect a radio source at RA 17 53 28.29, Dec
-01 27 06.22 (J2000, uncertainty of 50 milliarsec), consistent with
the optical coordinates of Halpern, and also the revised Swift-UVOT
coordinates reported by Still (ATEL#555). The measured flux density
is 2.1 +/- 0.2 mJy. Subsequent MERLIN observations on 2005 July 4 and
5 indicate that this radio source is variable, strengthening the
likely association with the X-ray transient. The images are consistent
with a point source - there is no evidence in these preliminary
analyses that the radio source is extended on angular scales greater
than 350 milliarcsec.
