Transient study using LoTSS - framework development and preliminary results

We present a search for transient radio sources on time-scales of seconds to hours at 144 MHz using the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS). This search is conducted by examining short time-scale images derived from the LoTSS data. To allow imaging of LoTSS on short time-scales, a modern imaging procedure and fast filtering strategy are introduced. This includes sky model source subtraction, no cleaning or primary beam correction, a simple source finder, fast filtering schemes, and source catalogue matching. This new strategy is first tested by injecting simulated transients, with a range of flux densities and durations, into the data. We find the limiting sensitivity to be 113 and 6 mJy for 8 s and 1 h transients, respectively. The new imaging and filtering strategies are applied to 58 fields of the LoTSS survey, corresponding to LoTSS-DR1 (2 per cent of the survey). One transient source is identified in the 8 s and 2 min snapshot images. The source shows 1 min duration flare in the 8 h observation. Our method puts the most sensitive constraints on/estimates of the transient surface density at low frequencies at time-scales of seconds to hours; <4.0 × 10⁻⁴ deg−² at 1 h at a sensitivity of 6.3 mJy; 5.7 × 10⁻⁷ deg⁻² at 2 min at a sensitivity of 30 mJy; and 3.6 × 10⁻⁸ deg⁻² at 8 s at a sensitivity of 113 mJy. In the future, we plan to apply the strategies presented in this paper to all LoTSS data.