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Project coordinator: |
Vladimir Mikhaylovich Lipunov |
Physics department of Lomonosov Moscow State University, Sternberg Astronomical Institute |
Russia |
Project partners: |
Devendra Kumar Sahu |
Indian Institute of Astrophysics |
India |
Hongbo Hu |
Astroparticle Physics Division, Institute of High Energy Physics, CAS |
China |
|
Funding agencies: |
RFBR (Russia), DST (India), NSFC (China) |
Presently as a result of development of means of rapid communication (including the Internet) many astrophysical investigations following transient alerts are now conducted practically in real time, allowing and the uniting of remote observatories. Observations of gamma-ray bursts were the first in this field, when space-born gamma observatories provided ground-based optical telescopes the coordinates of gamma-ray bursts and astronomical observatories,thousands of kilometers apart, began prompt observations of the gamma ray error-boxes within the first few minutes after a GRB ralert, and spectral observations by large telescopes determined the distances to host galaxies within several hours. Recently gravitational-wave observatories (LIGO), neutrino (ANTARES, IceCube) and x-ray observatories were also connected to such modes of observations. Russia has the systems to detect GRBsin the southern and northern hemispheres from spacei , i.e. the BDRG and SHOCK experiments on the Lomonosov satellite, and also Russia has the main optical follow up possibility to rapid transient investigation, i.e. MASTER Global Robotic Net, one of which is located at the South African Astronomical Observatory . Now the Baksan Underground Scintillation Telescope (BUST) is ready to send neutrino alerts in real time and also is ready to monitor the neutrino sky at the moment of other astrophysicaltransientevents. LHAASO is a high altitude cosmic rays experiment and will monitor the northerngamma ray sky with unprecedented sensitivity from 100GeV to 100TeV. We note the universal characteristic of these instruments, that they are capable to provide alerts to carry out observations , and to investigate alerts from another observatories . Northern neutrino telescopes register events of the Southern sky, available for observations in South Africa Large optical telescopes are located in South Africa (10m SALT, we have the time in its schedule), China (2.4m telescope at Lijiang Station of Yunnan Astronomical Observatories, 2.16m located at Xinglong Station of National Astronomical Observatories of China) and India (2m. HCT with Near Infrared Spectrometer and imager TIFR and High resolution echelle spectrograph HESP, 2.34 m VBT, 1.3m JCBT, 3.6m Telescope at Devsthal ), who are participants of this program. They have possibilities for spectroscopy and deep imaging investigation of MASTER and Lomonosov satellite (MASTER-Shok) optical transients (discovered from MASTER survey, GRBs, gravitational wave and neutrino event optical counterparts) in different ranges. Thus the geography and facilities available in the participating BRICS countries allows us to cover the entire sky. For gamma-ray bursts the investigation of the nature of these most powerful explosions in the Universe will be continued. The investigations of gravitational waves electromagnetic counterparts and also those of neutrino events are the first steps that will perhaps lead to do the pioneering works on collisions of neutron stars with neutron stars and black hole collisions and other transient events of the Universe. As a matter of fact, the discussed work is already conducted by some participants since the Global MASTER network has already participated in the first observations of the first gravitational impulse of GW150914 of aLIGO, and the decisive contribution to these observations was made by the Russian MASTERSAAO robotic telescope located inSouth Africa (see publications of the LIGO team and cooperators Abbott et al. 2016, ApJ, 826L, 13A , 2016, ApJS, 225, 8A). In addition participants of the project have already take part in observations of events of IceCUBE and ANTARES. The Lomonosov satellite has startedobservations and we plan to investigate its GRB error-boxes in this work. The BUST is ready to send alerts and all our optical and infrared facilities are ready to investigate the possible transients to search transient Universe.