Detection and characterisation of submm transient sources with a large single-dish telescope

Abstract

The exploration of the time-variable astronomical sky at submm wavelengths is rapidly becoming more feasible with large sky surveys by Cosmic Microwave Background telescopes with tens of thousands of detectors. Observations with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope and South Pole Telescope have already detected some transients, and Simons Observatory and CCAT are expected to detect many more in the near future. Follow-up observations to characterise these transients, and surveying to uncovering fainter populations, will need high sensitivity and large fields of view at submm wavelengths, which could be provided by large single dish telescopes such as AtLAST.