Title: Deep drilling in the time domain with DECam: survey characterization

Abstract

ABSTRACT This paper presents a new optical imaging survey of four deep drilling fields (DDFs), two Galactic and two extragalactic, with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the 4-m Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory (CTIO). During the first year of observations in 2021, >4000 images covering 21 deg2 (seven DECam pointings), with ∼40 epochs (nights) per field and 5 to 6 images per night per filter in g, r, i, and/or z have become publicly available (the proprietary period for this program is waived). We describe the real-time difference-image pipeline and how alerts are distributed to brokers via the same distribution system as the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). In this paper, we focus on the two extragalactic deep fields (COSMOS and ELAIS-S1) characterizing the detected sources, and demonstrating that the survey design is effective for probing the discovery space of faint and fast variable and transient sources. We describe and make publicly available 4413 calibrated light curves based on difference-image detection photometry of transients and variables in the extragalactic fields. We also present preliminary scientific analysis regarding the Solar system small bodies, stellar flares and variables, Galactic anomaly detection, fast-rising transients and variables, supernovae, and active Galactic nuclei.

Authors:

Graham, Melissa L. ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-9154-3136"

Knop, Robert A.; Kennedy, Thomas D.; Nugent, Peter E.; Bellm, Eric; Catelan, Márcio ;

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Catelan, Márcio"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-6003-8877"

Patel, Avi; Smotherman, Hayden; Soraisam, Monika; Stetzler, Steven; Aldoroty, Lauren N.; Awbrey, Autumn; Baeza-Villagra, Karina; Bernardinelli, Pedro H.; Bianco, Federica; Brout, Dillon; Clarke, Riley; Clarkson, William I.; Collett, Thomas ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-5564-3140"

Davenport, James R. A. more »; Fu, Shenming ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-5422-1958"

Gizis, John E.; Heinze, Ari; Hu, Lei; Jha, Saurabh W. ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-8738-6011"

Jurić, Mario; Kalmbach, J. Bryce; Kim, Alex ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0001-6315-8743"

Lee, Chien-Hsiu; Lidman, Chris ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-1731-0497"

Magee, Mark; Martínez-Vázquez, Clara E. ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-9144-7726"

Matheson, Thomas; Narayan, Gautham; Palmese, Antonella ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-6011-0530"

Phillips, Christopher A.; Rabus, Markus ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-2935-7196"

Rest, Armin; Rodríguez-Segovia, Nicolás ;

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• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0002-0125-1472"

Street, Rachel; Vivas, A. Katherina ;

• Search DOE PAGES for author "Vivas, A. Katherina"
• Search DOE PAGES for ORCID "0000-0003-4341-6172"

Wang, Lifan; Wolf, Nicholas; Yang, Jiawen « less

Publication Date:

Mon Nov 21 00:00:00 EST 2022

Research Org.:

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:

USDOE Office of Science (SC), High Energy Physics (HEP)

OSTI Identifier:

1908860

Alternate Identifier(s):

OSTI ID: 1972193

Grant/Contract Number:  

AC02-05CH11231

Resource Type:

Published Article

Journal Name:

Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society

Additional Journal Information:

Journal Name: Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Journal Volume: 519 Journal Issue: 3; Journal ID: ISSN 0035-8711

Publisher:

Oxford University Press

Country of Publication:

United Kingdom

Language:

English

Subject:

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS; methods; observational; techniques; image processing; surveys