Parkes observations for project P1056 semester 2020OCTS_06

Brief description

MeerTRAP is a project that performs real-time, commensal searches for fast radio transients using the MeerKAT telescope in South Africa. It has thus far led to the discovery of five new Galactic fast radio transients, most likely Rotating Radio Transient pulsars (RRATs), with modest amounts of time on sky and we expect to discover many more. We have already carried out successful observations of one of these sources with the Parkes UWL receiver (P1056), thus proving its utility in follow-up timing observations of MeerTRAP discoveries. We therefore request search-mode observations of all five sources aswell as provision for another five that we expect to discover before the start of the 2020OCT semester. The Parkes observations will be essential for determining their timing properties, such their as periods and period derivatives, and will elucidate the nature of these sources through their polarisation, emission and spectral properties across the wide bandwidth of the UWLreceiver. This will allow us to identify their place among the known pulsar population and will be highly valuable input to understand the extent of the RRAT population and pulsar emission behaviour.