A Search for Transient Sources in the First 100 deg2 of SPTpol Data

We will present the results from a systematic transient source search over a 100 square degree field of millimeter wavelength data taken with the SPTpol camera on the South Pole Telescope (SPT). The SPTpol instrument was installed on the SPT in the Austral summer of 2011/2012 and features 1,536 polarization sensitive detectors and observes at 150 GHz with an angular resolution of 1.1 arcminutes. The transient data set presented here includes 9 months of SPTpol observations over the same 100 square degree patch of sky that we break down into 36 hour observing blocks, each obtaining an average depth of 7.4 mJy at 150 GHz. The technology developed for SPTpol detectors is described here along with the associated technology necessary to operate the detectors. We present the specifics of producing millimeter wavelength maps from raw detector timestreams. We describe the specific analysis and results of searching for transient sources with timescales of days to weeks in the first 100 square degrees of data taken by the SPTpol camera. Using the search results we place upper limits on the number of millimeter transient sources as a function of the transient duration above a flux of ~20 mJy.