Real-Time Recovery Efficiencies and Performance of the Palomar Transient Factory's Transient Discovery Pipeline

Abstract

We present the transient source detection efficiencies of the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF), parameterizing the number of transients that PTF found, versus the number of similar transients that occurred over the same period in the survey search area but that were missed. PTF was an optical sky survey carried out with the Palomar 48-inch telescope over 2009-2012, observing more than 8000 square degrees of sky with cadences of between 1 and 5 days, locating around 50,000 non-moving transient sources, and spectroscopically confirming around 1900 supernovae. We assess the effectiveness with which PTF detected transient sources, by inserting ~7 million artificial point sources into real PTF data. We then study the efficiency with which the PTF real-time pipeline recovered these sources as a function of the source magnitude, host galaxy surface brightness, and various observing conditions (using proxies for seeing, sky brightness, and transparency). The product of this study is a multi-dimensional recovery efficiency grid appropriate for the range of observing conditions that PTF experienced, and that can then be used for studies of the rates, environments, and luminosity functions of different transient types using detailed Monte Carlo simulations. We illustrate the technique using the observationally well-understood class of type Ia supernovae.

arXiv commentAccepted for publication in ApJS. 15 pages, 13 figures

References in corpus (21)

• The USNO-B Catalog
• Improved cosmological constraints from a joint analysis of the SDSS-II and SNLS supernova samples
• Measurements of the Cosmological Parameters Omega and Lambda from the First 7 Supernovae at z >= 0.35
• First Results from the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey
• The Palomar Transient Factory: System Overview, Performance and First Results
• SALT2: using distant supernovae to improve the use of Type Ia supernovae as distance indicators
• Exploring the Optical Transient Sky with the Palomar Transient Factory
• Rates and properties of type Ia supernovae as a function of mass and star-formation in their host galaxies
• Supernova 2011fe from an Exploding Carbon-Oxygen White Dwarf Star
• PESSTO : survey description and products from the first data release by the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects
• The Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Survey: Search Algorithm and Follow-up Observations
• The Difference Imaging Pipeline for the Transient Search in the Dark Energy Survey
• Automating Discovery and Classification of Transients and Variable Stars in the Synoptic Survey Era
• The Palomar Transient Factory photometric calibration
• The distant Type Ia supernova rate
• Host Galaxy Identification for Supernova Surveys
• Exploring the spectral diversity of low-redshift Type Ia supernovae using the Palomar Transient Factory
• Type II supernova energetics and comparison of light curves to shock-cooling models
• Slow-Speed Supernovae from the Palomar Transient Factory: Two Channels
• Real-time Analysis and Selection Biases in the Supernova Legacy Survey
• Intermediate Palomar Transient Factory: Realtime Image Subtraction Pipeline

Cited by in corpus (24)

• Illuminating Gravitational Waves: A Concordant Picture of Photons from a Neutron Star Merger
• The Palomar Transient Factory Core-Collapse Supernova Host-Galaxy Sample. I. Host-Galaxy Distribution Functions and Environment-Dependence of CCSNe
• A mildly relativistic outflow from the energetic, fast-rising blue optical transient CSS161010 in a dwarf galaxy
• The Zwicky Transient Facility Census of the Local Universe I: Systematic search for Calcium rich gap transients reveal three related spectroscopic sub-classes
• A hot and fast ultra-stripped supernova that likely formed a compact neutron star binary
• Core-collapse, superluminous, and gamma-ray burst supernova host galaxy populations at low redshift: the importance of dwarf and starbursting galaxies
• From core collapse to superluminous: The rates of massive stellar explosions from the Palomar Transient Factory
• The volumetric rate of normal type Ia supernovae in the local universe discovered by the Palomar Transient Factory
• Rates and delay times of type Ia supernovae in the Dark Energy Survey
• First Cosmology Results Using Type Ia Supernovae From the Dark Energy Survey: Survey Overview and Supernova Spectroscopy
• Constraining the Kilonova Rate with Zwicky Transient Facility Searches Independent of Gravitational Wave and Short Gamma-ray Burst Triggers
• Sifting for Sapphires: Systematic Selection of Tidal Disruption Events in iPTF
• The Dark Energy Survey Supernova Program: Modelling selection efficiency and observed core collapse supernova contamination
• iPTF 16hgs: A double-peaked Ca-rich gap transient in a metal poor, star forming dwarf galaxy
• SNIa-Cosmology Analysis Results from Simulated LSST Images: from Difference Imaging to Constraints on Dark Energy
• The volumetric rate of calcium-rich transients in the local universe
• Color Me Intrigued: the Discovery of iPTF 16fnm, a Supernova 2002cx-like Object
• Less than 1% of Core-Collapse Supernovae in the local universe occur in elliptical galaxies
• R-band light-curve properties of Type Ia supernovae from the (intermediate) Palomar Transient Factory
• A population of Type Ibc supernovae with massive progenitors; broad lightcurves not uncommon in (i)PTF
• The Palomar Transient Factory Sky2Night programme
• TiDES: The 4MOST Time Domain Extragalactic Survey
• Panning for gold, but finding helium: discovery of the ultra-stripped supernova SN2019wxt from gravitational-wave follow-up observations
• Towards Rate Estimation for Transient Surveys I: Assessing Transient Detectability and Volume Sensitivity for iPTF