Igor Andreoni, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
Michael W. Coughlin2, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455, USA
Erik C. Kool, The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, AlbaNova, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Mansi M. Kasliwal, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
Harsh Kumar, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India
Varun Bhalerao, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India
Ana Sagues Carracedo, The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Physics, Stockholm University, AlbaNova, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Anna Y. Q. Ho, Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411, USA; ; Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, MS 50B-4206, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA; Miller Institute for Basic Research in Science, 468 Donner Lab, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Peter T. Pang, Nikhef, 1098 XG Amsterdam, The Netherland; Department of Physics, Utrecht University, 3584 CC Utrecht, The Netherlands
Divita Saraogi, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India
Kritti Sharma, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India
Vedant Shenoy, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Powai, Mumbai 400076, India
Eric Burns, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803
Tomas Ahumada, Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, MC 661, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
Shreya Anand, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
Leo P. Singer, Astrophysics Science Division, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, MC 661, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA; Joint Space-Science Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Daniel A. Perley, Astrophysics Research Institute, Liverpool John Moores University, IC2, Liverpool Science Park, 146 Brownlow Hill, Liverpool L3 5RF, UK
Kishalay De, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
U. C. Fremling, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
Eric C. Bellm, DIRAC Institute, Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, 3910 15th Avenue NE, Seattle, WA 98195, USA
Mattia Bulla, The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, AlbaNova, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Arien Crellin-Quick, Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411, USA
Tim Dietrich, Institut f¨ur Physik und Astronomie, Universit¨at Potsdam, 14476 Potsdam, Germany; Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics (Albert Einstein Institute), Am M¨uhlenberg 1, Potsdam 14476, Germany
Andrew Drake, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
Dmitry A. Duev, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
Ariel Goobar, The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Physics, Stockholm University, AlbaNova, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Swede
Matthew J. Graham, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
David L. Kaplan, Center for Gravitation, Cosmology and Astrophysics, Department of Physics, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, P.O. Box 413, Milwaukee, WI 53201, USA
S. R. Kulkarni, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
Russ R. Laher, IPAC, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
Ashish A. Mahabal, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
David L. Shupe, IPAC, California Institute of Technology, 1200 E. California Blvd, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
Jesper Sollerman, The Oskar Klein Centre, Department of Astronomy, Stockholm University, AlbaNova, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden
Richard Walters, Caltech Optical Observatories, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
Yuhan Yao, Division of Physics, Mathematics and Astronomy, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA

Author ORCID Identifier

Coughlin, Michael: 0000-0002-8262-2924
Andreoni, Igor: 0000-0002-8977-1498

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2021

Abstract

The most common way to discover extragalactic fast transients, which fade within a few nights in the optical, is via follow-up of gamma-ray burst and gravitational-wave triggers. However, wide-field surveys have the potential to identify rapidly fading transients independently of such external triggers. The volumetric survey speed of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) makes it sensitive to objects as faint and fast fading as kilonovae, the optical counterparts to binary neutron star mergers, out to almost 200 Mpc. We introduce an open-source software infrastructure, the ZTF REaltime Search and Triggering, ZTFReST, designed to identify kilonovae and fast transients in ZTF data. Using the ZTF alert stream combined with forced point-spread-function photometry, we have implemented automated candidate ranking based on their photometric evolution and fitting to kilonova models. Automated triggering, with a human in the loop for monitoring, of follow-up systems has also been implemented. In 13 months of science validation, we found several extragalactic fast transients independently of any external trigger, including two supernovae with post-shock cooling emission, two known afterglows with an associated gamma-ray burst (ZTF20abbiixp, ZTF20abwysqy), two known afterglows without any known gamma-ray counterpart (ZTF20aajnksq, ZTF21aaeyldq), and three new fast-declining sources (ZTF20abtxwfx, ZTF20acozryr, ZTF21aagwbjr) that are likely associated with GRB200817A, GRB201103B, and GRB210204A. However, we have not found any objects that appear to be kilonovae. We constrain the rate of GW170817-like kilonovae to R < 900 Gpc(-3) yr(-1) (95% confidence). A framework such as ZTFReST could become a prime tool for kilonova and fast-transient discovery with the Vera Rubin Observatory.

Publication Source (Journal or Book title)

Astrophysical Journal

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