The sloan digital sky Survey-II supernova survey: search algorithm and follow-up observations
- Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, 209 South 33rd Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104 (United States)
- Department of Mathematics and Applied Mathematics, University of Cape Town, Rondebosch 7701 (South Africa)
- Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Box 351580, Seattle, WA 98195 (United States)
- Department of Physics, Wayne State University, Detroit, MI 48202 (United States)
- Center for Particle Astrophysics, Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, P.O. Box 500, Batavia, IL 60510 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, Ohio State University, 140 West 18th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210-1173 (United States)
- Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics, The University of Chicago, 5640 South Ellis Avenue Chicago, IL 60637 (United States)
- Institute of Astronomy, Graduate School of Science, University of Tokyo 2-21-1, Osawa, Mitaka, Tokyo 181-0015 (Japan)
- University of Notre Dame, 225 Nieuwland Science, Notre Dame, IN 46556-5670 (United States)
- Department of Astronomy, MSC 4500, New Mexico State University, P.O. Box 30001, Las Cruces, NM 88003 (United States)
- Kavli Institute for Particle Astrophysics and Cosmology, Stanford University, P.O. Box 20450, MS29, Stanford, CA 94309 (United States)
- Institute for Cosmic Ray Research, University of Tokyo, 5-1-5, Kashiwanoha, Kashiwa, Chiba, 277-8582 (Japan)
- Space Telescope Science Institute, 3700 San Martin Drive, Baltimore, MD 21218 (United States)
- Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation, Mercantile House, Hampshire Terrace, University of Portsmouth, Portsmouth PO1 2EG (United Kingdom)
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Survey has identified a large number of new transient sources in a 300 deg{sup 2} region along the celestial equator during its first two seasons of a three-season campaign. Multi-band (ugriz) light curves were measured for most of the sources, which include solar system objects, galactic variable stars, active galactic nuclei, supernovae (SNe), and other astronomical transients. The imaging survey is augmented by an extensive spectroscopic follow-up program to identify SNe, measure their redshifts, and study the physical conditions of the explosions and their environment through spectroscopic diagnostics. During the survey, light curves are rapidly evaluated to provide an initial photometric type of the SNe, and a selected sample of sources are targeted for spectroscopic observations. In the first two seasons, 476 sources were selected for spectroscopic observations, of which 403 were identified as SNe. For the type Ia SNe, the main driver for the survey, our photometric typing and targeting efficiency is 90%. Only 6% of the photometric SN Ia candidates were spectroscopically classified as non-SN Ia instead, and the remaining 4% resulted in low signal-to-noise, unclassified spectra. This paper describes the search algorithm and the software, and the real-time processing of the SDSS imaging data. We also present the details of the supernova candidate selection procedures and strategies for follow-up spectroscopic and imaging observations of the discovered sources.
- OSTI ID:
- 22340031
- Journal Information:
- Astronomical Journal (New York, N.Y. Online), Vol. 135, Issue 1; Other Information: Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1538-3881
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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The Sloan Digital Sky Survey-II Supernova Survey: Technical Summary
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