MeerLICHT and BlackGEM: custom-built telescopes to detect faint optical transients

Bloemen, S.; Groot, P.; Woudt, P. A.; Wolt, M. Klein; McBride, V. A.; Nelemans, G.; Körding, Elmar; Pretorius, Magaretha L.; Roelfsema, R.; Bettonvil, Felix; Balster, Harry; Bakker, Roy; Dolron, Peter; Elteren, A. van; Elswijk, Eddy; Engels, Arno; Fender, R. P.; Fokker, Marc; Haan, Menno de; Hagoort, Klaas; Hoog, Jasper de; Horst, Rik ter; Kevie, Giel van der; Kozłowski, S; Kragt, Jan; Lech, Grzegorz; Poole, R. Le; Lesman, Dirk; Morren, Johan; Navarro, R.; Paalberends, Willem-Jelle; Paterson, K.; Pawłaszek, Rafał; Pessemier, Wim; Raskin, Gert; Rutten, H. G. J.; Scheers, Bart; Schuil, M.; Sybilski, P.

doi:10.1117/12.2232522

Cited by 47 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…We are focused on its application to the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF; Bellm et al 2019;Graham et al 2019) project, which imposes some specific requirements ( §2), but our formalism is relevant for other time-domain surveys, such as those conducted with the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST; Ivezić et al 2008), the Dark Energy Camera (DECam; Flaugher et al 2015), and Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC; Miyazaki et al 2018). Minor modifications would enable its use by multi-telescope surveys such as the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System (ATLAS; Tonry et al 2018), PanSTARRS (Kaiser et al 2010), the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN; Shappee et al 2014), and BlackGEM (Bloemen et al 2016).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Zwicky Transient Facility: Surveys and Scheduler

Bellm

Kulkarni

Barlow

et al. 2019

PASP

491

427

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We present a novel algorithm for scheduling the observations of time-domain imaging surveys. Our Integer Linear Programming approach optimizes an observing plan for an entire night by assigning targets to temporal blocks, enabling strict control of the number of exposures obtained per field and minimizing filter changes. A subsequent optimization step minimizes slew times between each observation. Our optimization metric selfconsistently weights contributions from time-varying airmass, seeing, and sky brightness to maximize the transient discovery rate. We describe the implementation of this algorithm on the surveys of the Zwicky Transient Facility and present its on-sky performance.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Zwicky Transient Facility: Surveys and Scheduler

Bellm

Kulkarni

Barlow

et al. 2019

PASP

491

427

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“…The safest strategy for detection is to observe NS mergers one or a few years after the event, when the X-ray afterglow or cocoon emission, has eventually ceased. We note that although the gravitational waves alone are insufficient to uniquely identify a host galaxy, given the brightness of the (roughly isotropic) optical macronova that followed the GW event GW170817 (Smartt et al 2017), a similar event could be detected up to distances much greater than the current LIGO horizon for BNS mergers (up to 1 Gyr, see Metzger 2017) and so is easily within reach of wide-field follow-up telescopes, such as the ZTF (Bellm 2014) and the BlackGEM array (Bloemen et al 2016). EM counterparts in other wavelengths, from radio to X-rays, may also be seen up to at least 60 Mpc (which we consider as the detection horizon in this paper) and may help to localize the event after the GW discovery (Bloom et al 2009;Nakar & Piran 2011;Kisaka et al 2015) even if we are observing the event off-axis.…”

Section: Observational Strategies For Detectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Compton echoes from nearby gamma-ray bursts

Beniamini

Giannios

Younes

et al. 2018

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

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The recent discovery of gravitational waves from GW170817, associated with a short Gamma-Ray Burst (GRB) at a distance of 40Mpc, has demonstrated that short GRBs can occur locally and at a reasonable rate. Furthermore, gravitational waves enable us to detect close by GRBs, even when we are observing at latitudes far from the jet's axis. We consider here Compton echoes, the scattered light from the prompt and afterglow emission. Compton echoes, an as yet undetected counterpart of GRBs, peak in X-rays and maintain a roughly constant flux for hundreds to thousands of years after the burst. Though too faint to be detected in typical cosmological GRBs, a fraction of close by bursts with a sufficiently large energy output in X-rays, and for which the surrounding medium is sufficiently dense, may indeed be observed in this way. The detection of a Compton echo could provide unique insight into the burst properties and the environment's density structure. In particular, it could potentially determine whether or not there was a successful jet that broke through the compact binary merger ejecta. We discuss here the properties and expectations from Compton echoes and suggest methods for detectability.

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“…ThunderKAT is the programme to observe such phenomena in the image plane with MeerKAT. It is also the umbrella project behind the MeerLICHT optical telescope [1], which will provide simultaneous optical images for all night-time MeerKAT observations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

ThunderKAT: The MeerKAT Large Survey Project for Image-Plane Radio Transients

Woudt¹,

Fender²,

Corbel³

et al. 2018

Proceedings of MeerKAT Science: On the Pathway to the SKA — PoS(MeerKAT2016)

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ThunderKAT is the image-plane transients programme for MeerKAT. The goal as outlined in 2010, and still today, is to find, identify and understand high-energy astrophysical processes via their radio emission (often in concert with observations at other wavelengths). Through a comprehensive and complementary programme of surveying and monitoring Galactic synchrotron transients (across a range of compact accretors and a range of other explosive phenomena) and exploring distinct populations of extragalactic synchrotron transients (microquasars, supernovae and possibly yet unknown transient phenomena)-both from direct surveys and commensal observations-we will revolutionise our understanding of the dynamic and explosive transient radio sky. As well as performing targeted programmes of our own, we have made agreements with the other MeerKAT large survey projects (LSPs) that we will also search their data for transients. This commensal use of the other surveys, which remains one of our key programme goals in 2016, means that the combined MeerKAT LSPs will produce by far the largest GHz-frequency radio transient programme to date.

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MeerLICHT and BlackGEM: custom-built telescopes to detect faint optical transients

Cited by 47 publications

References 14 publications

The Zwicky Transient Facility: Surveys and Scheduler

The Zwicky Transient Facility: Surveys and Scheduler

Compton echoes from nearby gamma-ray bursts

ThunderKAT: The MeerKAT Large Survey Project for Image-Plane Radio Transients

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