Asteroidscomets

The Zwicky Transient Facility: Science Objectives

July 2019 • 2019PASP..131g8001G

Authors • Graham, Matthew J. • Kulkarni, S. R. • Bellm, Eric C. • Adams, Scott M. • Barbarino, Cristina • Blagorodnova, Nadejda • Bodewits, Dennis • Bolin, Bryce • Brady, Patrick R. • Cenko, S. Bradley • Chang, Chan-Kao • Coughlin, Michael W. • De, Kishalay • Eadie, Gwendolyn • Farnham, Tony L. • Feindt, Ulrich • Franckowiak, Anna • Fremling, Christoffer • Gezari, Suvi • Ghosh, Shaon • Goldstein, Daniel A. • Golkhou, V. Zach • Goobar, Ariel • Ho, Anna Y. Q. • Huppenkothen, Daniela • Ivezić, Željko • Jones, R. Lynne • Juric, Mario • Kaplan, David L. • Kasliwal, Mansi M. • Kelley, Michael S. P. • Kupfer, Thomas • Lee, Chien-De • Lin, Hsing Wen • Lunnan, Ragnhild • Mahabal, Ashish A. • Miller, Adam A. • Ngeow, Chow-Choong • Nugent, Peter • Ofek, Eran O. • Prince, Thomas A. • Rauch, Ludwig • van Roestel, Jan • Schulze, Steve • Singer, Leo P. • Sollerman, Jesper • Taddia, Francesco • Yan, Lin • Ye, Quan-Zhi • Yu, Po-Chieh • Barlow, Tom • Bauer, James • Beck, Ron • Belicki, Justin • Biswas, Rahul • Brinnel, Valery • Brooke, Tim • Bue, Brian • Bulla, Mattia • Burruss, Rick • Connolly, Andrew • Cromer, John • Cunningham, Virginia • Dekany, Richard • Delacroix, Alex • Desai, Vandana • Duev, Dmitry A. • Feeney, Michael • Flynn, David • Frederick, Sara • Gal-Yam, Avishay • Giomi, Matteo • Groom, Steven • Hacopians, Eugean • Hale, David • Helou, George • Henning, John • Hover, David • Hillenbrand, Lynne A. • Howell, Justin • Hung, Tiara • Imel, David • Ip, Wing-Huen • Jackson, Edward • Kaspi, Shai • Kaye, Stephen • Kowalski, Marek • Kramer, Emily • Kuhn, Michael • Landry, Walter • Laher, Russ R. • Mao, Peter • Masci, Frank J. • Monkewitz, Serge • Murphy, Patrick • Nordin, Jakob • Patterson, Maria T. • Penprase, Bryan • Porter, Michael • Rebbapragada, Umaa • Reiley, Dan • Riddle, Reed • Rigault, Mickael • Rodriguez, Hector • Rusholme, Ben • van Santen, Jakob • Shupe, David L. • Smith, Roger M. • Soumagnac, Maayane T. • Stein, Robert • Surace, Jason • Szkody, Paula • Terek, Scott • Van Sistine, Angela • van Velzen, Sjoert • Vestrand, W. Thomas • Walters, Richard • Ward, Charlotte • Zhang, Chaoran • Zolkower, Jeffry

Abstract • 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 deg2 field of view and an 8 second readout time. It is well positioned in the development of time-domain astronomy, offering operations at 10% of the scale and style of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) with a single 1-m class survey telescope. The public surveys will cover the observable northern sky every three nights in g and r filters and the visible Galactic plane every night in g and r. Alerts generated by these surveys are sent in real time to brokers. A consortium of universities that provided funding (“partnership”) are undertaking several boutique surveys. The combination of these surveys producing one million alerts per night allows for exploration of transient and variable astrophysical phenomena brighter than r ∼ 20.5 on timescales of minutes to years. We describe the primary science objectives driving ZTF, including the physics of supernovae and relativistic explosions, multi-messenger astrophysics, supernova cosmology, active galactic nuclei, and tidal disruption events, stellar variability, and solar system objects.

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IPAC Authors
(alphabetical)

Vandana Desai

Senior Scientist


George Helou

IPAC Executive Director


Ben Rusholme

Chief Engineer


Dave Shupe

Senior Scientist