The SED Machine: a robotic spectrograph for fast transient classification

Abstract

Current time domain facilities are finding several hundreds of transient astronomical events a year. The discovery rate is expected to increase in the future as soon as new surveys such as the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and the Large Synoptic Sky Survey (LSST) come on line. At the present time, the rate at which transients are classified is approximately one order or magnitude lower than the discovery rate, leading to an increasing "follow-up drought". Existing telescopes with moderate aperture can help address this deficit when equipped with spectrographs optimized for spectral classification. Here, we provide an overview of the design, operations and first results of the Spectral Energy Distribution Machine (SEDM), operating on the Palomar 60-inch telescope (P60). The instrument is optimized for classification and high observing efficiency. It combines a low-resolution (R$\sim$100) integral field unit (IFU) spectrograph with "Rainbow Camera" (RC), a multi-band field acquisition camera which also serves as multi-band (ugri) photometer. The SEDM was commissioned during the operation of the intermediate Palomar Transient Factory (iPTF) and has already proved lived up to its promise. The success of the SEDM demonstrates the value of spectrographs optimized to spectral classification. Introduction of similar spectrographs on existing telescopes will help alleviate the follow-up drought and thereby accelerate the rate of discoveries.

arXiv comment21 pages, 20 figures

References in corpus (15)

• The Man Behind the Curtain: X-rays Drive the UV through NIR Variability in the 2013 AGN Outburst in NGC 2617
• Cosmic-Ray Rejection by Laplacian Edge Detection
• First Results from the Catalina Real-time Transient Survey
• Las Cumbres Observatory Global Telescope Network
• Astrometry.net: Blind astrometric calibration of arbitrary astronomical images
• Exploring the Optical Transient Sky with the Palomar Transient Factory
• The Automated Palomar 60-Inch Telescope
• iPTF16geu: A multiply imaged, gravitationally lensed type Ia supernova
• PTF12os and iPTF13bvn. Two stripped-envelope supernovae from low-mass progenitors in NGC 5806
• An Early Warning System for Asteroid Impact
• iPTF16fnl: a faint and fast tidal disruption event in an E+A galaxy
• iPTF Discovery of the Rapid "Turn On" of a Luminous Quasar
• Supernovae in Low-Redshift Galaxy Clusters: Observations by the Wise Observatory Optical Transient Search (WOOTS)
• Color Me Intrigued: the Discovery of iPTF 16fnm, a Supernova 2002cx-like Object
• Be Stars in the Open Cluster NGC 6830

Cited by in corpus (144)

• The Zwicky Transient Facility: System Overview, Performance, and First Results
• The Zwicky Transient Facility: Science Objectives
• Tidal Disruption Events
• Seventeen Tidal Disruption Events from the First Half of ZTF Survey Observations: Entering a New Era of Population Studies
• Design and operation of the ATLAS Transient Science Server
• The Early Data Release of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
• The Zwicky Transient Facility Bright Transient Survey. II. A Public Statistical Sample for Exploring Supernova Demographics
• A tidal disruption event coincident with a high-energy neutrino
• The Fast, Luminous Ultraviolet Transient AT2018cow: Extreme Supernova, or Disruption of a Star by an Intermediate-Mass Black Hole?
• The Final Season Reimagined: 30 Tidal Disruption Events from the ZTF-I Survey
• A large fraction of hydrogen-rich supernova progenitors experience elevated mass loss shortly prior to explosion
• A Fully Automated Integral Field Spectrograph Pipeline for the SEDMachine: pysedm
• Gaia Photometric Science Alerts
• A very luminous jet from the disruption of a star by a massive black hole
• The Palomar Transient Factory Core-Collapse Supernova Host-Galaxy Sample. I. Host-Galaxy Distribution Functions and Environment-Dependence of CCSNe
• GROWTH on S190425z: Searching thousands of square degrees to identify an optical or infrared counterpart to a binary neutron star merger with the Zwicky Transient Facility and Palomar Gattini IR
• Bright, months-long stellar outbursts announce the explosion of interaction-powered supernovae
• The first tidal disruption flare in ZTF: from photometric selection to multi-wavelength characterization
• Analysis of broad-lined Type Ic supernovae from the (intermediate) Palomar Transient Factory
• The Zwicky Transient Facility Census of the Local Universe I: Systematic search for Calcium rich gap transients reveal three related spectroscopic sub-classes
• A New Class of Changing-Look LINERs
• GROWTH on S190814bv: Deep Synoptic Limits on the Optical/Near-Infrared Counterpart to a Neutron Star-Black Hole Merger
• A WC/WO star exploding within an expanding carbon-oxygen-neon nebula
• ZTF Early Observations of Type Ia Supernovae I: Properties of the 2018 Sample
• A Search for Extragalactic Fast Blue Optical Transients in ZTF and the Rate of AT2018cow-like Transients
• Kilonova Luminosity Function Constraints based on Zwicky Transient Facility Searches for 13 Neutron Star Mergers
• The prevalence and influence of circumstellar material around hydrogen-rich supernova progenitors
• From Discovery to the First Month of the Type II Supernova 2023ixf: High and Variable Mass Loss in the Final Year before Explosion
• A data science platform to enable time-domain astronomy
• The Type Icn SN 2021csp: Implications for the Origins of the Fastest Supernovae and the Fates of Wolf-Rayet Stars
• Type IIn supernova light-curve properties measured from an untargeted survey sample
• Evidence for Late-stage Eruptive Mass-loss in the Progenitor to SN2018gep, a Broad-lined Ic Supernova: Pre-explosion Emission and a Rapidly Rising Luminous Transient
• Palomar Gattini-IR: Survey overview, data processing system, on-sky performance and first results
• A Family Tree of Optical Transients from Narrow-Line Seyfert 1 Galaxies
• ZTF 18aaqeasu (SN 2018byg): A Massive Helium-shell Double Detonation on a Sub-Chandrasekhar Mass White Dwarf
• Far-Ultraviolet to Near-Infrared Observations of SN 2023ixf: A high energy explosion engulfed in complex circumstellar material
• The Early Phases of Supernova 2020pni: Shock-Ionization of the Nitrogen-Enriched Circumstellar Material
• Discovery of Highly Blueshifted Broad Balmer and Metastable Helium Absorption Lines in a Tidal Disruption Event
• New Modules for the SEDMachine to Remove Contaminations from Cosmic Rays and Non-target Light: BYECR and CONTSEP
• The Tidal Disruption Event AT2021ehb: Evidence of Relativistic Disk Reflection, and Rapid Evolution of the Disk-Corona System
• Host Galaxies of Type Ic and Broad-lined Type Ic Supernovae from the Palomar Transient Factory: Implication for Jet Production
• SN2020bvc: a Broad-lined Type Ic Supernova with a Double-peaked Optical Light Curve and a Luminous X-ray and Radio Counterpart
• Establishing accretion flares from massive black holes as a source of high-energy neutrinos
• The Hydrogen-Poor Superluminous Supernovae from the Zwicky Transient Facility Phase-I Survey: I. Light Curves and Measurements
• Uncovering a population of gravitational lens galaxies with magnified standard candle SN Zwicky
• The Spectacular Ultraviolet Flash From the Peculiar Type Ia Supernova 2019yvq
• A population of heavily reddened, optically missed novae from Palomar Gattini-IR: Constraints on the Galactic nova rate
• The Zwicky Transient Facility Type Ia supernova survey: first data release and results
• Two stripped envelope supernovae with circumstellar interaction -- but only one really shows it
• AT 2019avd: A novel addition to the diverse population of nuclear transients
• ZTF20aajnksq (AT2020blt): A Fast Optical Transient at $z\approx 2.9$ With No Detected Gamma-Ray Burst Counterpart
• $\text{simsurvey}$: Estimating Transient Discovery Rates for the Zwicky Transient Facility
• Peculiar-velocity cosmology with Types Ia and II supernovae
• Characterization of the Nucleus, Morphology and Activity of Interstellar Comet 2I/Borisov by Optical and Near-Infrared GROWTH, Apache Point, IRTF, ZTF and Keck Observations
• A radio-detected Type Ia supernova with helium-rich circumstellar material
• Cosmological Fast Optical Transients with the Zwicky Transient Facility: A Search for Dirty Fireballs
• 2900 square degree search for the optical counterpart of short gamma-ray burst GRB 180523B with the Zwicky Transient Facility
• A Systematic Study of Ia-CSM Supernovae from the ZTF Bright Transient Survey
• ZTF18aalrxas: A Type IIb Supernova from a very extended low-mass progenitor
• Late-time observations of the extraordinary Type II supernova iPTF14hls
• Three Core-Collapse Supernovae with Nebular Hydrogen Emission
• A low-energy explosion yields the underluminous Type IIP SN 2020cxd
• A non-equipartition shockwave traveling in a dense circumstellar environment around SN2020oi
• Cataclysmic Variables in the First Year of the Zwicky Transient Facility
• Low-luminosity type IIP supernovae: SN 2005cs and SN 2020cxd as very low-energy iron core-collapse explosions
• The diversity of supernovae and impostors shortly after explosion
• SN 2021zny: an early flux excess combined with late-time oxygen emission suggests a double white dwarf merger event
• The luminous and rapidly evolving SN 2018bcc: Clues toward the origin of Type Ibn SNe from the Zwicky Transient Facility
• Discovery of an intermediate-luminosity red transient in M51 and its likely dust-obscured, infrared-variable progenitor
• The double-peaked type Ic Supernova 2019cad: another SN 2005bf-like object
• Volumetric rates of Luminous Red Novae and Intermediate Luminosity Red Transients with the Zwicky Transient Facility
• Helium-rich Superluminous Supernovae From the Zwicky Transient Facility
• The broad-lined Type-Ic supernova SN 2022xxf with extraordinary two-humped light curves
• A Systematic Analysis of Stellar Populations in the Host Galaxies of Changing-look AGNs
• Multi-wavelength Observations of AT2019wey: a New Candidate Black Hole Low-mass X-ray Binary
• Less than 1% of Core-Collapse Supernovae in the local universe occur in elliptical galaxies
• Collapsars as Sites of r-process Nucleosynthesis: Systematic Near-Infrared Follow-up of Type Ic-BL Supernovae
• Low luminosity Type II supernovae III. SN 2018hwm, a faint event with an unusually long plateau
• Minutes-duration Optical Flares with Supernova Luminosities
• The Zwicky Transient Facility phase I sample of hydrogen-rich superluminous supernovae without strong narrow emission lines
• Optimizing Serendipitous Detections of Kilonovae: Cadence and Filter Selection
• On the maximum luminosities of normal stripped-envelope supernovae -- brighter than explosion models allow
• SNIascore: Deep Learning Classification of Low-Resolution Supernova Spectra
• Supernova SN 2020faa -- an iPTF14hls look-alike?
• SN 2020bqj: a Type Ibn supernova with a long lasting peak plateau
• SN2020qlb: A hydrogen-poor superluminous supernova with well-characterized light curve undulations
• Spectroscopic observations of progenitor activity 100 days before a Type Ibn supernova
• ZTF SN Ia DR2: Environmental dependencies of stretch and luminosity of a volume limited sample of 1,000 Type Ia Supernovae
• SN 2018ijp: the explosion of a stripped-envelope star within a dense H-rich shell?
• SRGA J181414.6-225604: A new Galactic symbiotic X-ray binary outburst triggered by an intense mass loss episode of a heavily obscured Mira variable
• SPIRITS 16tn in NGC 3556: A heavily obscured and low-luminosity supernova at 8.8 Mpc
• SN 2019zrk, a bright SN 2009ip analog with a precursor
• The Broad-lined Ic Supernova ZTF18aaqjovh (SN 2018bvw): An Optically-discovered Engine-driven Supernova Candidate with Luminous Radio Emission
• Outbursting Young Stellar Object PGIR 20dci in the Perseus Arm
• Cataclysmic Variables in the Second Year of the Zwicky Transient Facility
• Supernova Siblings and their Parent Galaxies in the Zwicky Transient Facility Bright Transient Surve
• $\text{tdescore}$: An Accurate Photometric Classifier for Tidal Disruption Events
• Sample of hydrogen-rich superluminous supernovae from the Zwicky Transient Facility
• Early Ultra-Violet observations of type IIn supernovae constrain the asphericity of their circumstellar material
• SN 2021adxl: A luminous nearby interacting supernova in an extremely low metallicity environment
• ZTF SN Ia DR2: The spectral diversity of Type Ia supernovae in a volume-limited sample
• Probing pre-supernova mass loss in double-peaked Type Ibc supernovae from the Zwicky Transient Facility
• AT2018lqh and the nature of the emerging population of day-scale duration optical transients
• Inferring CSM Properties of Type II SNe Using a Magnitude-Limited ZTF Sample
• SN 2020udy: a SN Iax with strict limits on interaction consistent with a helium-star companion
• In search of short gamma-ray burst optical counterpart with the Zwicky Transient Facility
• The Jiao Tong University Spectroscopic Telescope Project
• Machine Learning based search for Cataclysmic Variables within Gaia Science Alerts
• The enigmatic double-peaked stripped-envelope SN 2023aew
• Cyclotron emitting magnetic white dwarfs in post common envelope binaries discovered with the Zwicky Transient Facility
• SN 2016hil-- a Type II supernova in the remote outskirts of an elliptical host and its origin
• SN 2022joj: A Peculiar Type Ia Supernova Possibly Driven by an Asymmetric Helium-shell Double Detonation
• Real-time Discovery of AT2020xnd: A Fast, Luminous Ultraviolet Transient with Minimal Radioactive Ejecta
• Long-rising Type II Supernovae in the Zwicky Transient Facility Census of the Local Universe
• HO Puppis: Not a Be Star but a Newly Confirmed IW And-Type Star
• ZTF SN Ia DR2: Evidence of Changing Dust Distributions With Redshift Using Type Ia Supernovae
• ZTF SN Ia DR2: The secondary maximum in Type Ia supernovae
• ZTF SN Ia DR2: Properties of the low-mass host galaxies of Type Ia supernovae in a volume-limited sample
• ZTF SN Ia DR2: High-velocity components in the Si II $\lambda$6355
• SN 2019odp: A Massive Oxygen-Rich Type Ib Supernova
• SN 2023zaw: an ultra-stripped, nickel-poor supernova from a low-mass progenitor
• Early-time spectroscopic modelling of the transitional Type Ia Supernova 2021rhu with TARDIS
• AT2019wxt: An ultra-stripped supernova candidate discovered in electromagnetic follow-up of a gravitational wave trigger
• Eruptive mass loss less than a year before the explosion of superluminous supernovae: I. The cases of SN 2020xga and SN 2022xgc
• A thermonuclear supernova interacting with hydrogen- and helium-deficient circumstellar material. SN 2020aeuh as a SN Ia-CSM-C/O?
• Luminous, rapidly declining supernovae as stripped transitional objects in low metallicity environments: the case of SN 2022lxg
• The automation of optical transient discovery and classification in Rubin-era time-domain astronomy
• Learning novel representations of variable sources from multi-modal $\text{Gaia}$ data via autoencoders
• ZTF SN Ia DR2 follow-up: Exploring the origin of the Type Ia supernova host galaxy step through Si II velocities
• Candidate strongly lensed type Ia supernovae in the Zwicky Transient Facility archive
• The hydrogen-free circumstellar interaction in the Type Ib supernova 2021efd: A clue to the mechanism of the helium-layer stripping
• ZTF SN Ia DR2: Improved SN Ia colors through expanded dimensionality with SALT3+
• ZTF SN Ia DR2: Impact of the galaxy cluster environment on the stretch distribution of Type Ia supernovae
• ZTF SN~Ia DR2: Cosmology-independent constraints on Type Ia supernova standardisation from supernova siblings
• ZTF SN Ia DR2: Exploring SN Ia properties in the vicinity of under-dense environments
• ABC-SN: Attention Based Classifier for Supernova Spectra
• The Type IIn SN 2025cbj coincidence with the high-energy neutrino IceCube-250421A
• PGIR 20eid (SN2020qmp): A Type IIP Supernova at 15.6 Mpc discovered by the Palomar Gattini-IR survey
• TDE 2025abcr: A Tidal Disruption Event in the Outskirts of a Massive Galaxy
• Faintest of them all : ZTF 21aaoryiz/SN 2021fcg -- Discovery of an extremely low luminosity type Iax supernova
• Strong Carbon Features and a Red Early Color in the Underluminous Type Ia SN 2022xkq
• A Young Supernova Selection Pipeline For The LSST Era
• Modeling the Light Curve and Spectra of SN 2023aew
• The nearby He-rich superluminous supernova SN 2021bnw during photospheric phases