Publications (90)
The Zwicky Transient Facility: Science Objectives
Matthew J. Graham, S. R. Kulkarni, Eric C. Bellm +114
The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), a public-private enterprise, is a new time domain survey employing a dedicated camera on the Palomar 48-inch Schmidt telescope with a 47 deg$^2…
Active Learning to Overcome Sample Selection Bias: Application to Photometric Variable Star Classification
Joseph W. Richards, Dan L. Starr, Henrik Brink +6
Despite the great promise of machine-learning algorithms to classify and predict astrophysical parameters for the vast numbers of astrophysical sources and transients observed in l…
JWST and Ground-based Observations of the Type Iax Supernovae SN 2024pxl and SN 2024vjm: Evidence for Weak Deflagration Explosions
Lindsey A. Kwok, Mridweeka Singh, Saurabh W. Jha +89
We present panchromatic optical near-infrared (NIR) mid-infrared (MIR) observations of the intermediate-luminosity Type Iax supernova (SN Iax) 2024pxl and the extremely low…
Cataclysmic Variables in the First Year of the Zwicky Transient Facility
Paula Szkody, Brooke Dicenzo, Anna Y. Q. Ho +25
Using selection criteria based on amplitude, time and color, we have identified 329 objects as known or candidate cataclysmic variable (CVs) during the first year of testing and op…
Machine Learning for the Zwicky Transient Facility
Ashish Mahabal, Umaa Rebbapragada, Richard Walters +47
The Zwicky Transient Facility is a large optical survey in multiple filters producing hundreds of thousands of transient alerts per night. We describe here various machine learning…
ZTF 18aaqeasu (SN 2018byg): A Massive Helium-shell Double Detonation on a Sub-Chandrasekhar Mass White Dwarf
Kishalay De, Mansi M. Kasliwal, Abigail Polin +24
The detonation of a helium shell on a white dwarf has been proposed as a possible explosion triggering mechanism for Type Ia supernovae. Here, we report ZTF 18aaqeasu (SN 2018byg/A…
ZTF SN Ia DR2 follow-up: early excess in Type Ia supernova light curves
Tomás E. Müller-Bravo, Tomás E. Müller-Bravo, Kate Maguire +17
There is broad consensus that Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are the thermonuclear explosions of C/O white dwarfs (WDs) in binary systems, but their progenitors and explosion mechanis…
The Zwicky Transient Facility Bright Transient Survey. III. : Automated Identification and Follow-up of Bright Transients with Deep Learning
Nabeel Rehemtulla, Adam A. Miller, Theophile Jegou Du Laz +10
The Bright Transient Survey (BTS) aims to obtain a classification spectrum for all bright (mag) extragalactic transients found in the Zwicky Transien…
Uncovering a population of gravitational lens galaxies with magnified standard candle SN Zwicky
Ariel Goobar, Joel Johansson, Steve Schulze +35
Detecting gravitationally lensed supernovae is among the biggest challenges in astronomy. It involves a combination of two very rare phenomena: catching the transient signal of a s…
Simulating Eclipsing Binary Yields of the Rubin Observatory in the Galactic Field and Star Clusters
Aaron M. Geller, Ava Polzin, Andrew Bowen +1
We present a study of the detection and recovery efficiency of the Rubin Observatory for detached eclipsing binaries (EBs) in the galactic field, globular clusters (GCs) and open c…
Probing the distance and morphology of the Large Magellanic Cloud with RR Lyrae stars
Christopher R. Klein, S. B. Cenko, Adam A. Miller +2
We present a Bayesian analysis of the distances to 15,040 Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) RR Lyrae stars using - and -band light curves from the Optical Gravitational Lensing Ex…
On the Progenitor System of the Type Iax Supernova 2014dt in M61
Ryan J. Foley, Schuyler D. Van Dyk, Saurabh W. Jha +5
We present pre-explosion and post-explosion Hubble Space Telescope images of the Type Iax supernova (SN Iax) 2014dt in M61. After astrometrically aligning these images, we do not d…
Dramatic rebrightening of the type-changing stripped-envelope supernova SN 2023aew
Yashvi Sharma, Jesper Sollerman, Shrinivas R. Kulkarni +32
Multi-peaked supernovae with precursors, dramatic light-curve rebrightenings, and spectral transformation are rare, but are being discovered in increasing numbers by modern night-s…
SN 2021zny: an early flux excess combined with late-time oxygen emission suggests a double white dwarf merger event
Georgios Dimitriadis, Kate Maguire, Viraj R. Karambelkar +28
We present a photometric and spectroscopic analysis of the ultra-luminous and slowly evolving 03fg-like Type Ia SN 2021zny. Our observational campaign starts from hours a…
The SDSS-IV extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey: Quasar Target Selection
Adam D. Myers, Nathalie Palanque-Delabrouille, Abhishek Prakash +34
As part of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey IV the extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS) will improve measurements of the cosmological distance scale by applying the…
A cosmic formation site of silicon and sulphur revealed by a new type of supernova explosion
Steve Schulze, Avishay Gal-Yam, Luc Dessart +47
The cores of stars are the cosmic furnaces where light elements are fused into heavier nuclei. The fusion of hydrogen to helium initially powers all stars. The ashes of the fusion…
A Massive Black Hole 0.8 kpc from the Host Nucleus Revealed by the Offset Tidal Disruption Event AT2024tvd
Yuhan Yao, Ryan Chornock, Charlotte Ward +31
Tidal disruption events (TDEs) that are spatially offset from the nuclei of their host galaxies offer a new probe of massive black hole (MBH) wanderers, binaries, triples, and reco…
SN2019dge: a Helium-rich Ultra-Stripped Envelope Supernova
Yuhan Yao, Kishalay De, Mansi M. Kasliwal +28
We present observations of ZTF18abfcmjw (SN2019dge), a helium-rich supernova with a fast-evolving light curve indicating an extremely low ejecta mass () and l…
Detection of persistent helium absorption in the 91bg-like type Ia Supernova 2022an
Ping Chen, Avishay Gal-Yam, Subo Dong +14
We present optical and near-infrared observations of the fast-declining Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) 2022an. The photometric and spectroscopic properties identify it as a standard 91b…
Multi-Messenger Astronomy with Extremely Large Telescopes
Ryan Chornock, Philip S. Cowperthwaite, Raffaella Margutti +82
The field of time-domain astrophysics has entered the era of Multi-messenger Astronomy (MMA). One key science goal for the next decade (and beyond) will be to characterize gravitat…
2900 square degree search for the optical counterpart of short gamma-ray burst GRB 180523B with the Zwicky Transient Facility
Michael W. Coughlin, Tomas Ahumada, S. Bradley Cenko +31
There is significant interest in the models for production of short gamma-ray bursts. Until now, the number of known short gamma-ray bursts with multi-wavelength afterglows has bee…
Decoding the Early-Time Light Curves of Type Ia Supernovae. I. A Hierarchical Bayesian Framework for Demographic Inference
Chang Liu, Adam A. Miller
Light curves of Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) in the days following explosion encode the diversity of progenitor systems and explosion physics. We present a hierarchical Bayesian fra…
CCSNscore: A multi-input deep learning tool for classification of core-collapse supernovae using SED-Machine spectra
Yashvi Sharma, Ashish A. Mahabal, Jesper Sollerman +16
Supernovae (SNe) come in various flavors and are classified into different types based on emission and absorption lines in their spectra. SN candidates are now abundant with the ad…
PTF10nvg: An Outbursting Class I Protostar in the Pelican/North American Nebula
Kevin R. Covey, Lynne A. Hillenbrand, Adam A. Miller +28
During a synoptic survey of the North American Nebula region, the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) detected an optical outburst (dubbed PTF10nvg) associated with the previously unst…
Improved Standardization of Type II-P Supernovae: Application to an Expanded Sample
Dovi Poznanski, Nathaniel Butler, Alexei V. Filippenko +16
In the epoch of precise and accurate cosmology, cross-confirmation using a variety of cosmographic methods is paramount to circumvent systematic uncertainties. Owing to progenitor…
Disappearance of the Progenitor of Supernova iPTF13bvn
Gastón Folatelli, Schuyler D. Van Dyk, Hanindyo Kuncarayakti +13
Supernova (SN) iPTF13bvn in NGC 5806 was the first Type Ib SN to have been tentatively associated with a progenitor candidate in pre-explosion images. We performed deep ultraviolet…
ZTF Early Observations of Type Ia Supernovae I: Properties of the 2018 Sample
Yuhan Yao, Adam A. Miller, S. R. Kulkarni +32
Early-time observations of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are essential to constrain their progenitor properties. In this paper, we present high-quality light curves of 127 SNe Ia dis…
Discovery of an intermediate-luminosity red transient in M51 and its likely dust-obscured, infrared-variable progenitor
Jacob E. Jencson, Scott M. Adams, Howard E. Bond +49
We present the discovery of an optical transient (OT) in Messier 51, designated M51 OT2019-1 (also ZTF19aadyppr, AT 2019abn, ATLAS19bzl), by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). Th…
The Zwicky Transient Facility: System Overview, Performance, and First Results
Eric C. Bellm, Shrinivas R. Kulkarni, Matthew J. Graham +112
The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) is a new optical time-domain survey that uses the Palomar 48-inch Schmidt telescope. A custom-built wide-field camera provides a 47 deg fiel…
The Eleventh and Twelfth Data Releases of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey: Final Data from SDSS-III
Shadab Alam, Franco D. Albareti, Carlos Allende Prieto +271
The third generation of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS-III) took data from 2008 to 2014 using the original SDSS wide-field imager, the original and an upgraded multi-object fib…
Discovery of Precursor LBV Outbursts in Two Recent Optical Transients: The Fitfully Variable Missing Links UGC 2773-OT and SN 2009ip
Nathan Smith, Adam A. Miller, Weidong Li +11
We present progenitor-star detections, light curves, and optical spectra of SN2009ip and the 2009 optical transient in UGC2773 (U2773-OT), which were not genuine SNe. Precursor var…
Rubin ToO 2024: Envisioning the Vera C. Rubin Observatory LSST Target of Opportunity program
Igor Andreoni, Raffaella Margutti, John Banovetz +86
The Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) at Vera C. Rubin Observatory is planned to begin in the Fall of 2025. The LSST survey cadence has been designed via a community-driven pr…
Decoding the Early-Time Light Curves of Type Ia Supernovae. II. Population Parameters of One Thousand ZTF Supernovae
Chang Liu, Adam A. Miller, Nikhil Sarin +13
Early-time light curves of Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) encode critical information about their progenitor systems. We characterize the rise of normal SNe Ia using a volume-complete…
The Demographics, Stellar Populations, and Star Formation Histories of Fast Radio Burst Host Galaxies: Implications for the Progenitors
Alexa C. Gordon, Wen-fai Fong, Charles D. Kilpatrick +26
We present a comprehensive catalog of observations and stellar population properties for 23 highly secure host galaxies of fast radio bursts (FRBs). Our sample comprises six repeat…
Algorithms and Statistical Models for Scientific Discovery in the Petabyte Era
Brian Nord, Andrew J. Connolly, Jamie Kinney +35
The field of astronomy has arrived at a turning point in terms of size and complexity of both datasets and scientific collaboration. Commensurately, algorithms and statistical mode…
CfAIR2: Near Infrared Light Curves of 94 Type Ia Supernovae
Andrew S. Friedman, W. M. Wood-Vasey, G. H. Marion +18
CfAIR2 is a large homogeneously reduced set of near-infrared (NIR) light curves for Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) obtained with the 1.3m Peters Automated InfraRed Imaging TELescope (P…
A New Forced Photometry Service for the Zwicky Transient Facility
Frank J. Masci, Russ R. Laher, Benjamin Rusholme +6
We describe the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) Forced Photometry Service (ZFPS) as developed and maintained by the ZTF Science Data System Team at IPAC/Caltech. The service is ope…
A New Class of Changing-Look LINERs
Sara Frederick, Suvi Gezari, Matthew J. Graham +28
We report the discovery of six active galactic nuclei (AGN) caught "turning on" during the first nine months of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) survey. The host galaxies were c…
: A Multi-input Convolutional Neural Network to Automate and Expedite Bright Transient Identification for the Zwicky Transient Facility
Nabeel Rehemtulla, Adam A. Miller, Michael W. Coughlin +1
The Bright Transient Survey (BTS) relies on visual inspection ("scanning") to select sources for accomplishing its mission of spectroscopically classifying all bright extragalactic…
Highly Variable Extinction and Accretion in the Jet-driving Class I Type Young Star PTF 10nvg (V2492 Cyg, IRAS 20496+4354)
Lynne A. Hillenbrand, Adam A. Miller, Kevin R. Covey +8
We report extensive new photometry and spectroscopy of the highly variable young stellar object PTF 10nvg including optical and near-infrared time series data as well as mid-infrar…
The Monitor project: the search for transits in the open cluster NGC 2362
Adam A. Miller, Jonathan Irwin, Suzanne Aigrain +2
We present the results of a systematic search for transiting planets in a ~5 Myr open cluster, NGC 2362. We observed ~1200 candidate cluster members, of which ~475 are believed to…
ZTF25abjmnps (AT2025ulz) and S250818k: A Candidate Superkilonova from a Sub-threshold Sub-Solar Gravitational Wave Trigger
Mansi M. Kasliwal, Tomas Ahumada, Robert Stein +61
On August 18, 2025, the LIGO-Virgo-KAGRA collaboration reported gravitational waves from a sub-threshold binary neutron star merger. If astrophysical, this event would have a surpr…
$\texttt{HostSub_GP}$: Precise Galaxy Background Subtraction in Transient Long-slit Spectroscopy with Gaussian Processes
Chang Liu, Adam A. Miller
We present a novel host galaxy subtraction technique in long-slit spectroscopy for extragalactic transients. Unlike classic methods which generally estimate the background using a…
A 12.4 day periodicity in a close binary system after a supernova
Ping Chen, Avishay Gal-Yam, Jesper Sollerman +37
Neutron stars and stellar-mass black holes are the remnants of massive star explosions. Most massive stars reside in close binary systems, and the interplay between the companion s…
SNIascore: Deep Learning Classification of Low-Resolution Supernova Spectra
Christoffer Fremling, Xander J. Hall, Michael W. Coughlin +18
We present SNIascore, a deep-learning based method for spectroscopic classification of thermonuclear supernovae (SNe Ia) based on very low-resolution (R ) data. The goal o…
The Zwicky Transient Facility Bright Transient Survey. II. A Public Statistical Sample for Exploring Supernova Demographics
Daniel A. Perley, Christoffer Fremling, Jesper Sollerman +34
We present a public catalog of transients from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) Bright Transient Survey (BTS), a magnitude-limited (m<19 mag in either the g or r filter) survey…
Early Ultra-Violet observations of type IIn supernovae constrain the asphericity of their circumstellar material
Maayane T. Soumagnac, Eran O. Ofek, Jingyi Liang +41
We present a survey of the early evolution of 12 Type IIn supernovae (SNe IIn) in the Ultra-Violet (UV) and visible light. We use this survey to constrain the geometry of the circu…
Processing Images from the Zwicky Transient Facility
Russ R. Laher, Frank J. Masci, Steve Groom +25
The Zwicky Transient Facility is a new robotic-observing program, in which a newly engineered 600-MP digital camera with a pioneeringly large field of view, 47~square degrees, will…
ZTF Early Observations of Type Ia Supernovae III: Early-Time Colors as a Test for Explosion Models and Multiple Populations
Mattia Bulla, Adam A. Miller, Yuhan Yao +22
Colors of Type Ia supernovae in the first few days after explosion provide a potential discriminant between different models. In this paper, we present colors of 65 Type Ia s…
The Candidate Progenitor of the Type IIn SN 2010jl is Not an Optically Luminous Star
Ori D. Fox, Schuyler D. Van Dyk, Eli Dwek +8
The nature of the progenitor star (or system) for the Type IIn supernova (SN) subclass remains uncertain. While there are direct imaging constraints on the progenitors of at least…
Fourteen Months of Observations of the Possible Super-Chandrasekhar Mass Type Ia Supernova 2009dc
Jeffrey M. Silverman, Mohan Ganeshalingam, Weidong Li +3
In this paper, we present and analyse optical photometry and spectra of the extremely luminous and slowly evolving Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) 2009dc, and offer evidence that it is a…
Constraints on the Progenitor System of the Type Ia Supernova SN 2011fe/PTF11kly
Weidong Li, Joshua S. Bloom, Philipp Podsiadlowski +25
Type Ia supernovae (SNe) serve as a fundamental pillar of modern cosmology, owing to their large luminosity and a well-defined relationship between light-curve shape and peak brigh…
The first tidal disruption flare in ZTF: from photometric selection to multi-wavelength characterization
Sjoert van Velzen, Suvi Gezari, S. Bradley Cenko +37
We present Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) observations of the tidal disruption flare AT2018zr/PS18kh reported by Holoien et al. and detected during ZTF commissioning. The ZTF ligh…
From Data to Software to Science with the Rubin Observatory LSST
Katelyn Breivik, Andrew J. Connolly, K. E. Saavik Ford +97
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) dataset will dramatically alter our understanding of the Universe, from the origins of the Solar System to the…
Discovery of SN 2025wny: a Strongly Gravitationally Lensed Superluminous Supernova at z = 2.01
Joel Johansson, Daniel A. Perley, Ariel Goobar +31
We present the discovery of SN 2025wny (ZTF25abnjznp/GOTO25gtq) and spectroscopic classification of this event as the first gravitationally lensed Type I superluminous supernovae (…
The La Silla Schmidt Southern Survey
Adam A. Miller, Natasha S. Abrams, Greg Aldering +75
We present the La Silla Schmidt Southern Survey (LS4), a new wide-field, time-domain survey to be conducted with the 1 m ESO Schmidt telescope. The 268 megapixel LS4 camera mosaics…
Type Ia Supernovae Strongly Interacting with Their Circumstellar Medium
Jeffrey M. Silverman, Peter E. Nugent, Avishay Gal-Yam +31
Owing to their utility for measurements of cosmic acceleration, Type Ia supernovae (SNe) are perhaps the best-studied class of SNe, yet the progenitor systems of these explosions l…
Low-Luminosity Type IIP Supernovae from the Zwicky Transient Facility Census of the Local Universe. I: Luminosity Function, Volumetric Rate
Kaustav K. Das, Mansi M. Kasliwal, Christoffer Fremling +51
We present the luminosity function and volumetric rate of a sample of Type IIP supernovae (SNe) from the Zwicky Transient Facility Census of the Local Universe survey (CLU). This i…
StarEmbed: Benchmarking Time Series Foundation Models on Astronomical Observations of Variable Stars
Weijian Li, Hong-Yu Chen, Nabeel Rehemtulla +6
Time series foundation models (TSFMs) are increasingly being adopted as highly-capable general-purpose time series representation learners. Although their training corpora are vast…
Pre-training vision models for the classification of alerts from wide-field time-domain surveys
Nabeel Rehemtulla, Adam A. Miller, Mike Walmsley +15
Modern wide-field time-domain surveys facilitate the study of transient, variable and moving phenomena by conducting image differencing and relaying alerts to their communities. Ma…
SN 2022joj: A Peculiar Type Ia Supernova Possibly Driven by an Asymmetric Helium-shell Double Detonation
Chang Liu, Adam A. Miller, Samuel J. Boos +28
We present observations of SN 2022joj, a peculiar Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). SN 2022joj exhibits an unusually red $g_\mathrm{ZTF}-…
Long-rising Type II Supernovae in the Zwicky Transient Facility Census of the Local Universe
Tawny Sit, Mansi M. Kasliwal, Anastasios Tzanidakis +25
SN 1987A was an unusual hydrogen-rich core-collapse supernova originating from a blue supergiant star. Similar blue supergiant explosions remain a small family of events, and are b…
Leveraging Multimodality for Real-Time Classification of Transients and Variables found by the Zwicky Transient Facility
Ved G. Shah, Nabeel Rehemtulla, Adam A. Miller +13
Modern time-domain surveys such as the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) generate hundreds of thousands of alerts each night, making real-time decisions for follow-up observations a…
The Type II Superluminous SN 2008es at Late Times: Near-Infrared Excess and Circumstellar Interaction
Kornpob Bhirombhakdi, Ryan Chornock, Adam A. Miller +3
SN 2008es is one of the rare cases of a Type II superluminous supernova (SLSN) showing no relatively narrow features in its early-time spectra, and therefore its powering mechanism…
The Type IIb Supernova 2013df and Its Cool Supergiant Progenitor
Schuyler D. Van Dyk, WeiKang Zheng, Ori D. Fox +10
We have obtained early-time photometry and spectroscopy of Supernova (SN) 2013df in NGC 4414. The SN is clearly of Type IIb, with notable similarities to SN 1993J. From its luminos…
The BTSbot-nearby discovery of SN 2024jlf: rapid, autonomous follow-up probes interaction in an 18.5 Mpc Type IIP supernova
Nabeel Rehemtulla, W. V. Jacobson-Galán, Avinash Singh +27
We present observations of the Type IIP supernova (SN) 2024jlf, including spectroscopy beginning just 0.7 days (17 hours) after first light. Rapid follow-up was enabled by th…
Discovery of a Cosmological, Relativistic Outburst via its Rapidly Fading Optical Emission
S. Bradley Cenko, S. R. Kulkarni, Assaf Horesh +26
We report the discovery by the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) of the transient source PTF11agg, which is distinguished by three primary characteristics: (1) bright, rapidly fading…
JWST Observations of Calcium-Strong Transients: I. Complex Nebular He Emission in SN 2024uj
Saarah Hall, Lindsey A. Kwok, Aravind P. Ravi +29
We present the first JWST observations of a Calcium-Strong Transient (CaST), SN 2024uj, a rare class of supernovae (SNe) with observable properties that are consistent with both th…
The Zwicky Transient Facility: Data Processing, Products, and Archive
Frank J. Masci, Russ R. Laher, Ben Rusholme +46
The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) is a new robotic time-domain survey currently in progress using the Palomar 48-inch Schmidt Telescope. ZTF uses a 47 square degree field with a…
Addressing Decadal Survey Science through Community Access to Highly Multiplexed Spectroscopy with BigBOSS on the KPNO Mayall Telescope
Caty Pilachowski, Carles Badenes, Stephen Bailey +87
This document summarizes the results of a community-based discussion of the potential science impact of the Mayall+BigBOSS highly multiplexed multi-object spectroscopic capability.…
A Disappearing Act: Constraints From "Missing" Flares of Repeating Partial TDE Candidates
Jason T. Hinkle, Chang Liu, Adam A. Miller +6
Recurrent tidal disruption events (rTDEs) are sources that exhibit multiple TDE-like flares; many are likely powered by the recurring partial disruption of a bound star, in a repea…
An extremely energetic supernova from a very massive star in a dense medium
Matt Nicholl, Peter K. Blanchard, Edo Berger +14
The interaction of a supernova with a circumstellar medium (CSM) can dramatically increase the emitted luminosity by converting kinetic energy to thermal energy. In 'superluminous'…
PTF1 J082340.04+081936.5: A hot subdwarf B star with a low mass white dwarf companion in an 87 minute orbit
Thomas Kupfer, Jan van Roestel, Jared Brooks +19
We present the discovery of the hot subdwarf B star (sdB) binary PTF1 J082340.04+081936.5. The system has an orbital period P min (0.060761584(10) days), ma…
Construction of a Calibrated Probabilistic Classification Catalog: Application to 50k Variable Sources in the All-Sky Automated Survey
Joseph W. Richards, Dan L. Starr, Adam A. Miller +4
With growing data volumes from synoptic surveys, astronomers must become more abstracted from the discovery and introspection processes. Given the scarcity of follow-up resources,…
Mid-Infrared Dust Evolution and Late-time Circumstellar Medium Interaction in SN 2017eaw
Jeniveve Pearson, Bhagya Subrayan, David J. Sand +24
We present JWST/MIRI and complementary ground-based near-infrared observations of the Type II SN 2017eaw taken 6 years post-explosion. SN 2017eaw is still detected out to 25 m…
PTF 14jg: The Remarkable Outburst and Post-Burst Evolution of a Previously Anonymous Galactic Star
Lynne A. Hillenbrand, Adam A. Miller, John M. Carpenter +6
We report the outbursting source PTF 14jg, which prior to the onset of its late 2013 eruption, was a faint, unstudied, and virtually uncatalogued star. The salient features of the…
A non-equipartition shockwave traveling in a dense circumstellar environment around SN2020oi
Assaf Horesh, Itai Sfaradi, Mattias Ergon +34
We report the discovery and panchromatic followup observations of the young Type Ic supernova, SN2020oi, in M100, a grand design spiral galaxy at a mere distance of Mpc. We fo…
A Continuum of H- to He-Rich Tidal Disruption Candidates With a Preference for E+A Galaxies
Iair Arcavi, Avishay Gal-Yam, Mark Sullivan +23
We present the results of a Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) archival search for blue transients which lie in the magnitude range between "normal" core-collapse and superluminous su…
Evidence for an FU Orionis-like Outburst from a Classical T Tauri Star
Adam A. Miller, Lynne A. Hillenbrand, Kevin R. Covey +26
We present pre- and post-outburst observations of the new FU Orionis-like young stellar object PTF 10qpf (also known as LkHa 188-G4 and HBC 722). Prior to this outburst, LkHa 188-G…
A Massive Progenitor of the Luminous Type IIn Supernova 2010jl
Nathan Smith, Weidong Li, Adam A. Miller +6
The bright, nearby, recently discovered supernova SN2010jl is a member of the rare class of relatively luminous Type~IIn events. Here we report archival HST observations of its hos…
SN 2020jgb: A Peculiar Type Ia Supernova Triggered by a Helium-Shell Detonation in a Star-Forming Galaxy
Chang Liu, Adam A. Miller, Abigail Polin +25
The detonation of a thin () helium shell (He-shell) atop a white dwarf (WD) is a promising mechanism to explain normal…
Kilonova Luminosity Function Constraints based on Zwicky Transient Facility Searches for 13 Neutron Star Mergers
Mansi M. Kasliwal, Shreya Anand, Tomas Ahumada +100
We present a systematic search for optical counterparts to 13 gravitational wave (GW) triggers involving at least one neutron star during LIGO/Virgo's third observing run. We searc…
PTF10iya: A short-lived, luminous flare from the nuclear region of a star-forming galaxy
S. Bradley Cenko, Joshua S. Bloom, S. R. Kulkarni +28
We present the discovery and characterisation of PTF10iya, a short-lived (dt ~ 10 d, with an optical decay rate of ~ 0.3 mag per d), luminous (M_g ~ -21 mag) transient source found…
A Morphological Model to Separate Resolved-Unresolved Sources in the DESI Legacy Surveys: Application in the LS4 Alert Stream
Chang Liu, Adam A. Miller, Joshua S. Bloom +2
Separating resolved and unresolved sources in large imaging surveys is a fundamental step to enable downstream science, such as searching for extragalactic transients in wide-field…
JWST Spectroscopy of SN Ia 2022aaiq and 2024gy: Evidence for Enhanced Central Stable Ni Abundance and a Deflagration-to-Detonation Transition
Lindsey A. Kwok, Chang Liu, Saurabh W. Jha +48
We present optical + near-infrared (NIR) + mid-infrared (MIR) observations of the normal Type Ia supernovae (SN Ia) 2022aaiq and 2024gy in the nebular phase, continuously spanning…
SN 2020udy: a SN Iax with strict limits on interaction consistent with a helium-star companion
Kate Maguire, Mark R. Magee, Giorgos Leloudas +24
Early observations of transient explosions can provide vital clues to their progenitor origins. In this paper we present the nearby Type Iax (02cx-like) supernova (SN), SN 2020udy…
SN 2023zaw: an ultra-stripped, nickel-poor supernova from a low-mass progenitor
Kaustav K. Das, Christoffer Fremling, Mansi M. Kasliwal +34
We present SN 2023zaw a sub-luminous ( mag) and rapidly-evolving supernova ( days), with the lowest nickel mass (…
The Zwicky Transient Facility Census of the Local Universe I: Systematic search for Calcium rich gap transients reveal three related spectroscopic sub-classes
Kishalay De, Mansi M. Kasliwal, Anastasios Tzanidakis +47
(Abridged) Using the Zwicky Transient Facility alert stream, we are conducting a large campaign to spectroscopically classify all transients occurring in galaxies in the Census of…
The Broad-lined Ic Supernova ZTF18aaqjovh (SN 2018bvw): An Optically-discovered Engine-driven Supernova Candidate with Luminous Radio Emission
Anna Y. Q. Ho, Alessandra Corsi, S. Bradley Cenko +23
We present ZTF18aaqjovh (SN 2018bvw), a high-velocity ("broad-lined") stripped-envelope (Type Ic) supernova (Ic-BL SN) discovered in the Zwicky Transient Facility one-day cadence s…
The automation of optical transient discovery and classification in Rubin-era time-domain astronomy
Nabeel Rehemtulla, Michael W. Coughlin, Adam A. Miller +1
Robotic wide-field time-domain surveys, such as the Zwicky Transient Facility and the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System, capture dozens of transients each night. The wo…