Core-Collapse Supernovae from The Palomar Transient Factory (PTF)

Activities at the Weizmann Institute



The PTF wide-field variability survey is a new international experiment conducted by a consortium of 5 major partners: The California Institute of Technology (Caltech), Columbia University, a partnership including the Lawrence Berkeley Labs and Oxford University, The Weizmann Institute of Science and the Las Cumbres Observatory. The survey instrument is the recommissioned CFHT 12k camera, mounted on the 48'' Oschin Schmidt Telescope at Palomar Observatory, delivering a 7.8 square degrees field-of view per image. This dedicated wide-field survey instrument saw first light on Dec. 2008, is in routine operations since March 2009, and the partners are committed to operate the survey for a minimum period of 5 years, ending in November 2013. The PTF will provide a dedicated ``discovery machine'', probing unexplored regions in observational parameter space, in terms of a combination of field of view, survey depth and temporal search cadence. The study of core-collapse supernovae discovered by the PTF is a key project led by Avishay Gal-Yam at the Weizmann Institute.



Highlights:

Optical coming of age: realtime detection and rapid multiwavelength follow-up of transients from the Palomar Transient Survey
First results from the PTF dry-run 2007: discovery of the first Pair-Instability SN Nature paper
First PTF sensation: mysterious transients unmasked as the bright blue death throes of massive stars (Nature manuscript)

Core-Collapse Supernova Studies with the PTF:

The Weizmann Institute is leading the Core-Collapse Key project within the PTF. We will study the demographics of these explosions, with a focus on events in dwarf galaxies, since the PTF will be sensitive to SN-like events, regardless of their host galaxy, and will thus provide a large sample of sueprnovae (~700 during its lifetime) that will provide a true representation of the cosmic supernova population (first results). Based on theoretical predictions and results from pathfinder experiments we expect to discover new types of supernovae (e.g., Gal-Yam et al. 2009, Quimby et al. 2010) in these environments.

The PTF will also be sensitive to very faint events in nearby galaxies (e.g., PTF09dav), and, thanks to the high cadence temporal sampling (better than nightly for typically 1/3 of the time), to rapidly declining SN events (e.g., Kasliwal et al. 2010), which are strongly biased against in traditional surveys.


Spectroscopically confirmed supernova discoveries (as of today)
All SNe SNe Ia SNe Ibc SNe II
910 608 46 215

PTF Publications:

Core-collapse and TILU group:

  • PTF10vdl: Real-Time Detection and Multiwavelength Follow-up of an Optical Transient from the Wide-Field Palomar Transient Factory Survey (Gal-Yam et al. 2010)
  • The Extreme Hosts of Extreme Supernovae (Neill et al. 2010)
  • Rapidly Decaying Supernova 2010X: A Candidate ".Ia" Explosion (Kasliwal et al. 2010)
  • Supernova PTF 09uj: A possible shock breakout from a dense circumstellar wind (Ofek et al. 2010)
  • PTF10fqs: A Luminous Red Nova in the Spiral Galaxy Messier 99 (Kasliwal et al. 2010)
  • Core-Collapse Supernovae from the Palomar Transient Factory: Indications for a different Population in Dwarf Galaxies (Arcavi et al. 2010)
  • Mysterious transients unmasked as the bright blue death throes of massive stars (Quimby et al. 2009)

    Others (science):

  • Evidence for an FU Orionis Outburst from a Classical T Tauri Star (Miller et al. 2010)
  • PTF10nvg: An Outbursting Class I Protostar in the Pelican/North American Nebula (Covey et al. 2010)
  • Hubble Space Telescope Studies of Nearby Type Ia Supernovae: The Mean Maximum Light Ultraviolet Spectrum and its Dispersion (Cooke et al. 2010)
  • Galaxy Zoo Supernovae (Smith et al. 2010)

    Others (techincal):

  • Exploring the Optical Transient Sky with the Palomar Transient Factory (Rau et al. 2009)
  • The Palomar Transient Factory: System Overview, Performance and First Results (Law et al. 2009)


    Support:

    The Weizmann Institute PTF Partnership is funded in part by the Israeli Science Foundation through a new faculty equipmnent grant to A. Gal-Yam. The integration of the Wise Observatory into the PTF follow-up network is supported by the US-Israeli binational science foundation (BSF) through a grant to PIs Gal-Yam and Kulkarni (Caltech). Additional support is provided by the Legacy Heritage Foundation, the EU via a Marie Curie IRG grant to A. Gal-Yam and the Benoziyo Center for Astrophysics and Minerva-Weizmann Program at the Weizmann Institute.



    Constructed: October 2008, by: Avishay Gal-Yam , E-Mail: email