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- Smartt, S. J., et al.
(författare)
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PESSTO : survey description and products from the first data release by the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects
- 2015
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 579
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Context. The Public European Southern Observatory Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects (PESSTO) began as a public spectroscopic survey in April 2012. PESSTO classifies transients from publicly available sources and wide-field surveys, and selects science targets for detailed spectroscopic and photometric follow-up. PESSTO runs for nine months of the year, January - April and August - December inclusive, and typically has allocations of 10 nights per month. Aims. We describe the data reduction strategy and data products that are publicly available through the ESO archive as the Spectroscopic Survey data release 1 (SSDR1). Methods. PESSTO uses the New Technology Telescope with the instruments EFOSC2 and SOFI to provide optical and NIR spectroscopy and imaging. We target supernovae and optical transients brighter than 20.5(m) for classification. Science targets are selected for follow-up based on the PESSTO science goal of extending knowledge of the extremes of the supernova population. We use standard EFOSC2 set-ups providing spectra with resolutions of 13-18 angstrom between 3345-9995 angstrom. A subset of the brighter science targets are selected for SOFI spectroscopy with the blue and red grisms (0.935-2.53 mu m and resolutions 23-33 angstrom) and imaging with broadband JHK(s) filters. Results. This first data release (SSDR1) contains flux calibrated spectra from the first year (April 2012-2013). A total of 221 confirmed supernovae were classified, and we released calibrated optical spectra and classifications publicly within 24 h of the data being taken (via WISeREP). The data in SSDR1 replace those released spectra. They have more reliable and quantifiable flux calibrations, correction for telluric absorption, and are made available in standard ESO Phase 3 formats. We estimate the absolute accuracy of the flux calibrations for EFOSC2 across the whole survey in SSDR1 to be typically similar to 15%, although a number of spectra will have less reliable absolute flux calibration because of weather and slit losses. Acquisition images for each spectrum are available which, in principle, can allow the user to refine the absolute flux calibration. The standard NIR reduction process does not produce high accuracy absolute spectrophotometry but synthetic photometry with accompanying JHK(s) imaging can improve this. Whenever possible, reduced SOFI images are provided to allow this. Conclusions. Future data releases will focus on improving the automated flux calibration of the data products. The rapid turnaround between discovery and classification and access to reliable pipeline processed data products has allowed early science papers in the first few months of the survey.
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| 2. |
- Sasdelli, Michele, et al.
(författare)
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A metric space for Type Ia supernova spectra
- 2015
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Ingår i: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 447:2, s. 1247-1266
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We develop a new framework for use in exploring Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) spectra. Combining principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least square (PLS) analysis we are able to establish correlations between the principal components (PCs) and spectroscopic/photometric SNe Ia features. The technique was applied to similar to 120 SN and similar to 800 spectra from the Nearby Supernova Factory. The ability of PCA to group together SNe Ia with similar spectral features, already explored in previous studies, is greatly enhanced by two important modifications: (1) the initial data matrix is built using derivatives of spectra over the wavelength, which increases the weight of weak lines and discards extinction, and (2) we extract time evolution information through the use of entire spectral sequences concatenated in each line of the input data matrix. These allow us to define a stable PC parameter space which can be used to characterize synthetic SN Ia spectra by means of real SN features. Using PLS, we demonstrate that the information from important previously known spectral indicators (namely the pseudo-equivalent width of Si II 5972 angstrom/Si II 6355 angstrom and the line veloci of S II 5640 angstrom/Si II 6355 angstrom) at a given epoch is contained within the PC space and can be determined through a linear combination of the most important PCs. We also show that the PC space encompasses photometric features like B/V magnitudes, B - V colours and SALT2 parameters c and x(1). The observed colours and magnitudes, which are heavily affected by extinction, cannot be reconstructed using this technique alone. All the above-mentioned applications allowed us to construct a metric space for comparing synthetic SN Ia spectra with observations.
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| 3. |
- Nicholl, M., et al.
(författare)
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On the diversity of superluminous supernovae : ejected mass as the dominant factor
- 2015
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Ingår i: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 452:4, s. 3869-3893
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We assemble a sample of 24 hydrogen-poor superluminous supernovae (SLSNe). Parameterizing the light-curve shape through rise and decline time-scales shows that the two are highly correlated. Magnetar-powered models can reproduce the correlation, with the diversity in rise and decline rates driven by the diffusion time-scale. Circumstellar interaction models can exhibit a similar rise-decline relation, but only for a narrow range of densities, which may be problematic for these models. We find that SLSNe are approximately 3.5 mag brighter and have light curves three times broader than SNe Ibc, but that the intrinsic shapes are similar. There are a number of SLSNe with particularly broad light curves, possibly indicating two progenitor channels, but statistical tests do not cleanly separate two populations. The general spectral evolution is also presented. Velocities measured from Fe II are similar for SLSNe and SNe Ibc, suggesting that diffusion time differences are dominated by mass or opacity. Flat velocity evolution in most SLSNe suggests a dense shell of ejecta. If opacities in SLSNe are similar to other SNe Ibc, the average ejected mass is higher by a factor 2-3. Assuming. = 0.1 cm(2) g(-1), we estimate a mean (median) SLSN ejecta mass of 10 M-circle dot (6 M-circle dot), with a range of 3-30 M-circle dot. Doubling the assumed opacity brings the masses closer to normal SNe Ibc, but with a high-mass tail. The most probable mechanism for generating SLSNe seems to be the core collapse of a very massive hydrogen-poor star, forming a millisecond magnetar.
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| 4. |
- Childress, M. J., et al.
(författare)
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Measuring nickel masses in Type Ia supernovae using cobalt emission in nebular phase spectra
- 2015
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Ingår i: Monthly notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. - : Oxford University Press (OUP). - 0035-8711 .- 1365-2966. ; 454:4, s. 3816-3842
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The light curves of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are powered by the radioactive decay of Ni-56 to Co-56 at early times, and the decay of Co-56 to Fe-56 from similar to 60 d after explosion. We examine the evolution of the [Co III] lambda 5893 emission complex during the nebular phase for SNe Ia with multiple nebular spectra and show that the line flux follows the square of the mass of Co-56 as a function of time. This result indicates both efficient local energy deposition from positrons produced in Co-56 decay and long-term stability of the ionization state of the nebula. We compile SN Ia nebular spectra from the literature and present 21 new late-phase spectra of 7 SNe Ia, including SN 2014J. From these we measure the flux in the [Co III] lambda 5893 line and remove its well-behaved time dependence to infer the initial mass of Ni-56 (M-Ni, produced in the explosion. We then examine Ni-56 yields for different SN Ia ejected masses (M-ej-calculated using the relation between light-curve width and ejected mass) and find that the Ni-56 masses of SNe Ia fall into two regimes: for narrow light curves (low stretch s similar to 0.7-0.9), M-Ni is clustered near MN, 0.4 Me and shows a shallow increase as Mei increases from similar to 1 to 1.4 M-circle dot; at high stretch, M-ej clusters at the Chandrasekhar mass (1.4 M-circle dot) while M-Ni, spans a broad range from 0.6 to 1.2 M-circle dot. This could constitute evidence for two distinct SN Ia explosion mechanisms.
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