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We report the results of our statistical study of the POINT-AGAPE CNe catalogue. The first Sloan $r$ and $i$ analysis of the MMRD relationship in M31 is performed using the resulting POINT-AGAPE CN catalogue. Good fits are produced to the MMRD in the two filters. However, we are unable to verify the $t_{15}$ relationship for either Sloan filter. The subsequent analysis of our automated CN detection pipeline has provided us with the most thorough knowledge of the completeness of a CN survey to-date. In addition, the large field of view of the survey has permitted us to probe the outburst rate well into the galactic disk, unlike previous CCD imaging surveys. Using this analysis we are able to probe the CN distribution of M31 and evaluate the global nova rate. Using models of the galactic surface brightness of M31, we show that the observed CN distribution consists of a separate bulge and disk population. We also show that the M31 bulge CN eruption rate per unit $r$ flux is more than five times greater than that of the disk. We deduce a global M31 CN rate of $65^{+16}_{-15}$ year$^{-1}$, a value much higher than found by previous surveys. Using the global rate, we derive a M31 bulge rate of $38^{+15}_{-12}$ year$^{-1}$ and a disk rate of $27^{+19}_{-15}$ year$^{-1}$. Given our understanding of the completeness and an analysis of other sources of error, we conclude that the true global nova rate of M31 is at least 50% higher than was previously thought and this has consequent implications for the presumed CN rate in the Milky Way. We deduce a Galactic bulge rate of $14^{+6}_{-5}$ year$^{-1}$, a disk rate of $20^{+14}_{-11}$ year$^{-1}$ and a global Galactic rate of $34^{+15}_{-12}$ year$^{-1}$.
The POINT-AGAPE survey is an optical search for gravitational microlensing events towards the Andromeda Galaxy (M31). As well as microlensing, the survey is sensitive to many different classes of variable stars and transients. Here we describe the au
An automated search is carried out for microlensing events using a catalogue of 44554 variable superpixel lightcurves derived from our three-year monitoring program of M31. Each step of our candidate selection is objective and reproducible by a compu
Searching for microlensing in M31 using automated superpixel surveys raises a number of difficulties which are not present in more conventional techniques. Here we focus on the problem that the list of microlensing candidates is sensitive to the sele
In our preceding paper, Liverpool Telescope data of M31 novae in eruption were used to facilitate a search for their progenitor systems within archival Hubble Space Telescope (HST) data, with the aim of detecting systems with red giant secondaries (R
The POINT-AGAPE collaboration has been monitoring M31 for three seasons with the Wide Field Camera on the Isaac Newton Telescope. In each season, data are taken for one hour per night for roughly sixty nights during the six months that M31 is visible