THE GMRT HIGH RESOLUTION SOUTHERN SKY SURVEY FOR PULSARS AND TRANSIENTS. I. SURVEY DESCRIPTION AND INITIAL DISCOVERIES

We are conducting a survey for pulsars and transients using the Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT). The GMRT High Resolution Southern Sky (GHRSS) survey is an off-Galactic plane (vertical bar b vertical bar > 5) survey in the declination range 40 degrees to 54 degrees at 322 MHz. With the high time (up to 30.72 mu s) and frequency (up to 0.016275 MHz) resolution observing modes, the 5 sigma detection limit is 0.5 mJy for a 2 ms pulsar with a 10% duty cycle at 322 MHz. The total GHRSS sky coverage of 2866 deg(2). will result from 1953 pointings, each covering 1.8 deg(2). The 10 sigma detection limit for a 5 ms transient burst is 1.6 Jy for the GHRSS survey. In addition, the GHRSS survey can reveal transient events like rotating radio transients or fast radio bursts. With 35% of the survey completed (i.e., 1000 deg(2)), we report the discovery of 10 pulsars, 1 of which is a millisecond pulsar (MSP), which is among the highest pulsar per square degree discovery rates for any off-Galactic plane survey. We re-detected 23 known in-beam pulsars. Utilizing the imaging capability of the GMRT, we also localized four of the GHRSS pulsars (including the MSP) in the gated image plane within. +/- 10 ''. We demonstrated rapid convergence in pulsar timing with a more precise position than is possible with single-dish discoveries. We also show that we can localize the brightest transient sources with simultaneously obtained lower time resolution imaging data, demonstrating a technique that may have application in the Square Kilometre Array.