We present an opticalear-infrared search for a counterpart to the perplexing radio transient GCRT J1745–3009, a source located ~1° from the Galactic center. Motivated by some similarities to radio bursts from nearby ultracool dwarfs, and by a distance upper limit of 70 pc for the emission to not violate the 1012 K brightness temperature limit for incoherent radiation, we searched for a nearby star at the position of GCRT J1745–3009. We found only a single marginal candidate, limiting the presence of any late-type star to 1?kpc (spectral types earlier than M9), 200?pc (spectral types L and T0-T4), and 100?pc (spectral types T4-T7), thus severely restricting the possible local counterparts to GCRT J1745–3009. We also exclude any white dwarf within 1 kpc or a supergiant star out to the distance of the Galactic center as possible counterparts. This implies that GCRT J1745–3009 likely requires a coherent emission process, although whether or not it reflects a new class of sources is unclear.
展开▼
