Parkes observations for project P661 semester 2009OCTS

We have discovered 9 new Rotating Radio Transients (RRATs) in our re-processing of the Parkes Multi-Beam Pulsar Survey (PMPS) which is now complete. These sources are neutron stars which emit bright radio bursts from as often as every few minutes to as infrequently as once per hour. RRATs are abundant in the Galaxy even more so than the radio pulsars. The large number of neutron stars implied by the existence of RRATs points to evolution between the different neutron star classes. To constrain the true RRAT population we need to find and characterise more sources. This is the motive for our search and the preliminary results are promising with 9 new discoveries and >100 yet to be re-observed candidates. We hope to use the Parkes telescope to confirm these candidates and study the confirmed sources.