scholarly journals Processing GOTO data with the Rubin Observatory LSST Science Pipelines I: Production of coadded frames

2021 ◽  
Vol 38 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Mullaney ◽  
L. Makrygianni ◽  
V. Dhillon ◽  
S. Littlefair ◽  
K. Ackley ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Gravitational Wave ◽  
Time Domain ◽  
Wide Area ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Process Data ◽  
Data Production ◽  
The Time Domain ◽  
Further Development ◽  
High Cadence

Abstract The past few decades have seen the burgeoning of wide-field, high-cadence surveys, the most formidable of which will be the Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) to be conducted by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory. So new is the field of systematic time-domain survey astronomy; however, that major scientific insights will continue to be obtained using smaller, more flexible systems than the LSST. One such example is the Gravitational-wave Optical Transient Observer (GOTO) whose primary science objective is the optical follow-up of gravitational wave events. The amount and rate of data production by GOTO and other wide-area, high-cadence surveys presents a significant challenge to data processing pipelines which need to operate in near-real time to fully exploit the time domain. In this study, we adapt the Rubin Observatory LSST Science Pipelines to process GOTO data, thereby exploring the feasibility of using this ‘off-the-shelf’ pipeline to process data from other wide-area, high-cadence surveys. In this paper, we describe how we use the LSST Science Pipelines to process raw GOTO frames to ultimately produce calibrated coadded images and photometric source catalogues. After comparing the measured astrometry and photometry to those of matched sources from PanSTARRS DR1, we find that measured source positions are typically accurate to subpixel levels, and that measured L-band photometries are accurate to $\sim50$ mmag at $m_L\sim16$ and $\sim200$ mmag at $m_L\sim18$ . These values compare favourably to those obtained using GOTO’s primary, in-house pipeline, gotophoto, in spite of both pipelines having undergone further development and improvement beyond the implementations used in this study. Finally, we release a generic ‘obs package’ that others can build upon, should they wish to use the LSST Science Pipelines to process data from other facilities.

scholarly journals Spectroscopy of candidate electromagnetic counterparts to gravitational wave sources

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (S324) ◽  
pp. 283-286
Author(s):  
Iain A. Steele ◽  
Chris M. Copperwheat ◽  
Andrzej S. Piascik
Keyword(s):  
Black Hole ◽  
Gravitational Wave ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Solar System Objects ◽  
Multi Wavelength ◽  
Binary Mergers ◽  
Black Hole Binary ◽  
Field Imaging ◽  
Wide Field Imaging

AbstractA programme of worldwide, multi-wavelength electromagnetic follow-up of sources detected by gravitational wave detectors is in place. Following the discovery of GW150914 and GW151226, wide field imaging of their sky localisations identified a number of candidate optical counterparts which were then spectrally classified. The majority of candidates were found to be supernovae at redshift ranges similar to the GW events and were thereby ruled out as a genuine counterpart. Other candidates ruled out include AGN and Solar System objects. Given the GW sources were black hole binary mergers, the lack of an identified electromagnetic counterpart is not surprising. However the observations show that it is possible to organise and execute a campaign that can eliminate the majority of potential counterparts. Finally we note the existence of a “classification gap” with a significant fraction of candidates going unclassified.

scholarly journals The Future of the Time Domain with LSST

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (S285) ◽  
pp. 158-158
Author(s):  
Lucianne M. Walkowicz
Keyword(s):  
Time Domain ◽  
Survey Design ◽  
Ancillary Data ◽  
Event Identification ◽  
Scientific Investigations ◽  
The Time Domain ◽  
First Time

SummaryIn the coming decade LSST's combination of all-sky coverage, consistent long-term monitoring and flexible criteria for event identification will revolutionize studies of a wide variety of astrophysical phenomena. Time-domain science with LSST encompasses objects both familiar and exotic, from classical variables within our Galaxy to explosive cosmological events. Increased sample sizes of known-but-rare observational phenomena will quantify their distributions for the first time, thus challenging existing theories. Perhaps most excitingly, LSST will provide the opportunity to sample previously untouched regions of parameter space. LSST will generate ‘alerts’ within 60 seconds of detecting a new transient, permitting the community to follow up unusual events in greater detail. However, follow-up will remain a challenge as the volume of transients will easily saturate available spectroscopic resources. Characterization of events and access to appropriate ancillary data (e.g. from prior observations, either in the optical or in other passbands) will be of the utmost importance in prioritizing follow-up observations. The incredible scientific opportunities and unique challenges afforded by LSST demand organization, forethought and creativity from the astronomical community. To learn more about the telescope specifics and survey design, as well as obtaining a overview of the variety of the scientific investigations that LSST will enable, readers are encouraged to look at the LSST Science Book: http://www.lsst.org/lsst/scibook. Organizational details of the LSST science collaborations and management may be found at http://www.lsstcorp.org.

scholarly journals Current and Future of Microlensing Exoplanet Search

2012 ◽  
Vol 8 (S293) ◽  
pp. 10-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takahiro Sumi
Keyword(s):  
Mass Function ◽  
Space Mission ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Large Space ◽  
Detection Techniques ◽  
Snow Line ◽  
Continuous Survey ◽  
The Galaxy ◽  
High Cadence

AbstractGravitational microlensing has a unique sensitivity to exoplanets at outside of the snow-line with masses down to the Earth-mass. Because of the rarity and short timescale of the planetary signal, the survey groups, MOA-II in New Zealand and OGLE-IV in Chile carry out the wide field survey observation towards the galactic bulge to issue alerts in real time. Then telescopes of the follow-up groups conduct high cadence follow-up observation to get dense sampling of the short planetary signal. Recent high cadence survey observations by MOA-II and OGLE-IV have started to find exoplanets without follow-up observation systematically. This is a transition to the next generation 24-hour high cadence survey network which can reveal the mass function of exoplanets down to Earth-mass outside of the snow-line. The Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) is the highest ranked recommendation for a large space mission in the recent New Worlds, New Horizons (NWNH) in Astronomy and Astrophysics 2010 Decadal Survey. Exoplanet microlensing program is one of the primary science of WFIRST. WFIRST will find about 2,000 bound planets and 1,000 unbound planets by the high precision continuous survey with 15 min. cadence. WFIRST can complete the statistical census of planetary systems in the Galaxy, from the outer habitable zone to gravitationally unbound planets – a discovery space inaccessible to other exoplanet detection techniques.

scholarly journals Gravitational Waves and Time-Domain Astronomy

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (S285) ◽  
pp. 191-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Centrella ◽  
Samaya Nissanke ◽  
Roy Williams
Keyword(s):  
Gravitational Wave ◽  
Gravitational Waves ◽  
Time Domain ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Massive Black Hole ◽  
Compact Binary ◽  
Challenges And Opportunities ◽  
Binary Mergers

AbstractThe gravitational-wave window onto the universe will open in roughly five years, when Advanced LIGO and Virgo achieve the first detections of high-frequency gravitational waves, most likely coming from compact binary mergers. Electromagnetic follow-up of these triggers, using radio, optical, and high energy telescopes, promises exciting opportunities in multi-messenger time-domain astronomy. In the decade, space-based observations of low-frequency gravitational waves from massive black hole mergers, and their electromagnetic counterparts, will open up further vistas for discovery. This two-part workshop featured brief presentations and stimulating discussions on the challenges and opportunities presented by gravitational-wave astronomy. Highlights from the workshop, with the emphasis on strategies for electromagnetic follow-up, are presented in this report.

scholarly journals Small and Robotic Telescopes in the Era of Massive Time-Domain Surveys

2011 ◽  
Vol 7 (S285) ◽  
pp. 235-238
Author(s):  
M. F. Bode ◽  
W. T. Vestrand
Keyword(s):  
Real Time ◽  
Time Domain ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Small Aperture ◽  
Robotic Telescopes ◽  
On Line ◽  
New Facilities

AbstractWe have entered an era in time-domain astronomy in which the detected rate of explosive transients and important ephemeral states in persistent objects threatens to overwhelm the world's supply of traditional follow-up telescopes. As new, comprehensive time-domain surveys become operational and wide-field multi-messenger observatories come on-line, that problem will become more acute. The goal of this workshop was to foster discussion about how autonomous robotic telescopes and small-aperture conventional telescopes can be employed in the most effective ways to help deal with the coming deluge of scientifically interesting follow-up opportunities. Discussion topics included the role of event brokers, automated event triage, the establishment of cooperative global telescope networks, and real-time coordination of observations at geographically diverse sites. It therefore included brief overviews of the current diverse landscape of telescopes and their interactions, and also considered planned and potential new facilities and operating models.

DETECTING GRAVITATIONAL WAVES AND THEIR ELECTROMAGNETIC COUNTERPARTS

2011 ◽  
Vol 20 (10) ◽  
pp. 1883-1890
Author(s):  
LINQING WEN
Keyword(s):  
Gravitational Wave ◽  
Gravitational Waves ◽  
Graphics Processing Units ◽  
Hardware Acceleration ◽  
Detection Methods ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Theory Of Relativity ◽  
Detection And Identification ◽  
Graphics Processing

In the next decade, we expect a first detection of gravitational waves predicted by Einstein's general theory of relativity. A detection of their electromagnetic counterparts will significantly contribute to our confidence in a first time detection and identification of the source. We discuss the challenges in using gravitational-wave events as triggers for prompt follow-up electromagnetic observations. We demonstrate that wide-field cameras are desirable for follow-up observations of gravitational wave sources and that a larger gravitational wave detector network, e.g. adding AIGO detector in Australia, can significantly help pinpoint the direction of gravitational wave sources. We also argue that low-latency real-time detection methods and hardware acceleration using graphics processing units will help generate prompt gravitational-wave triggers within the time frames allowed for electromagnetic follow-ups in the era of advanced detectors.

scholarly journals PS15cey and PS17cke: prospective candidates from the Pan-STARRS Search for kilonovae

2020 ◽  
Vol 500 (3) ◽  
pp. 4213-4228
Author(s):  
O R McBrien ◽  
S J Smartt ◽  
M E Huber ◽  
A Rest ◽  
K C Chambers ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Equation Of State ◽  
Gravitational Wave ◽  
Time Domain ◽  
Physical Parameters ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Rapid Response System ◽  
Field Surveys ◽  
Response System ◽  
Fast Fading ◽  
Merger Event

ABSTRACT Time domain astronomy was revolutionized with the discovery of the first kilonova, AT2017gfo, in August 2017, which was associated with the gravitational wave signal GW170817. Since this event, numerous wide-field surveys have been optimizing search strategies to maximize their efficiency of detecting these fast and faint transients. With the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS), we have been conducting a volume-limited survey for intrinsically faint and fast-fading events to a distance of D ≃ 200 Mpc. Two promising candidates have been identified from this archival search, with sparse data – PS15cey and PS17cke. Here, we present more detailed analysis and discussion of their nature. We observe that PS15cey was a luminous, fast-declining transient at 320 Mpc. Models of BH–NS mergers with a very stiff equation of state could possibly reproduce the luminosity and decline but the physical parameters are extreme. A more likely scenario is that this was an AT2018kzr-like merger event. PS17cke was a faint and fast-declining event at 15 Mpc. We explore several explosion scenarios of this transient including models of it as a NS–NS and BH–NS merger, the outburst of a massive luminous star, and compare it against other known fast-fading transients. Although there is uncertainty in the explosion scenario due to difficulty in measuring the explosion epoch, we find PS17cke to be a plausible kilonova candidate from the model comparisons.

scholarly journals Optimizing Cadences with Realistic Light-curve Filtering for Serendipitous Kilonova Discovery with Vera Rubin Observatory

2021 ◽  
Vol 258 (1) ◽  
pp. 5
Author(s):  
Igor Andreoni ◽  
Michael W. Coughlin ◽  
Mouza Almualla ◽  
Eric C. Bellm ◽  
Federica B. Bianco ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Near Infrared ◽  
Gamma Ray ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
High Energy ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Field Surveys ◽  
Deep Survey ◽  
Energy Gamma ◽  
Further Development

Abstract Current and future optical and near-infrared wide-field surveys have the potential to find kilonovae, the optical and infrared counterparts to neutron star mergers, independently of gravitational-wave or high-energy gamma-ray burst triggers. The ability to discover fast and faint transients such as kilonovae largely depends on the area observed, the depth of those observations, the number of revisits per field in a given time frame, and the filters adopted by the survey; it also depends on the ability to perform rapid follow-up observations to confirm the nature of the transients. In this work, we assess kilonova detectability in existing simulations of the Legacy Survey of Space and Time strategy for the Vera C. Rubin Wide Fast Deep survey, with focus on comparing rolling to baseline cadences. Although currently available cadences can enable the detection of >300 kilonovae out to ∼1400 Mpc over the 10 year survey, we can expect only 3–32 kilonovae similar to GW170817 to be recognizable as fast-evolving transients. We also explore the detectability of kilonovae over the plausible parameter space, focusing on viewing angle and ejecta masses. We find that observations in redder izy bands are crucial for identification of nearby (within 300 Mpc) kilonovae that could be spectroscopically classified more easily than more distant sources. Rubin’s potential for serendipitous kilonova discovery could be increased by gain of efficiency with the employment of individual 30 s exposures (as opposed to 2 × 15 s snap pairs), with the addition of red-band observations coupled with same-night observations in g or r bands, and possibly with further development of a new rolling-cadence strategy.

EARLY DETECTION AND LOCALIZATION OF GRAVITATIONAL WAVES FROM COMPACT BINARY COALESCENCES

2013 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 1360011 ◽  
Author(s):  
LINQING WEN ◽  
QI CHU
Keyword(s):  
Neutron Star ◽  
Gravitational Wave ◽  
Gravitational Waves ◽  
Real Time ◽  
Wide Field ◽  
Compact Binary ◽  
Black Hole Binary ◽  
Star Binary ◽  
Detection And Localization

With the first detection of gravitational waves expected in the next decade, increasing efforts are made toward the electromagnetic follow-up observations of gravitational wave events. In this paper, I discuss the prospect of real-time detection and source localization for gravitational waves from neutron star–neutron star binary or neutron star–black hole binary coalescences before their merger. I show that several low-latency search pipelines are already under intensive development with the aim to provide real-time detections of these events. There will also be fast responding and/or wide-field electromagnetic telescopes available to help catch the electromagnetic or particle flashes possibly occurring during or immediately after their merger. It has been shown that a few coalescence events per year can be detected by advanced LIGO-VIRGO detector network tens of seconds before their merger. However, most of these events will have poor sky direction localization for the existing gravitational-wave detector network, making it extremely challenging for follow up observations by astronomical telescopes aiming at catching events around the merger time. A larger detector network including the planned detectors in Japan and in India will play an important role in improving the angular resolution and making prompt follow up observations much more realistic. A new detector at the Southern Hemisphere AIGO will further contribute significantly to this aspect.

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