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 ($|b|$ > 5) survey in the declination range −40° to −54° at 322 MHz. With the high time (up to 30.72 μs) and frequency (up to 0.016275 MHz) resolution observing modes, the 5σ 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 deg² will result from 1953 pointings, each covering 1.8 deg². The 10σ 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 deg²), 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.