Search

We present a search for extragalactic fast blue optical transients (FBOTs) during Phase I of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). We identify 38 candidates with durations above half-maximum light 1 day < t 1/2 < 12 days, of which 28 have blue (g − r ≲ −0.2 mag) colors at peak light. Of the 38 transients (28 FBOTs), 19 (13) can be spectroscopically classified as core-collapse supernovae (SNe): 11 (8) H- or He-rich (Type II/IIb/Ib) SNe, 6 (4) interacting (Type IIn/Ibn) SNe, and 2 (1) H&He-poor (Type Ic/Ic-BL) SNe. Two FBOTs (published previously) had predominantly featureless spectra and luminous radio emission: AT2018lug (The Koala) and AT2020xnd (The Camel). Seven (five) did not have a definitive classification: AT 2020bdh showed tentative broad Hα in emission, and AT 2020bot showed unidentified broad features and was 10 kpc offset from the center of an early-type galaxy. Ten (eight) have no spectroscopic observations or redshift measurements. We present multiwavelength (radio, millimeter, and/or X-ray) observations for five FBOTs (three Type Ibn, one Type IIn/Ibn, one Type IIb). Additionally, we search radio-survey (VLA and ASKAP) data to set limits on the presence of radio emission for 24 of the transients. All X-ray and radio observations resulted in nondetections; we rule out AT2018cow-like X-ray and radio behavior for five FBOTs and more luminous emission (such as that seen in the Camel) for four additional FBOTs. We conclude that exotic transients similar to AT2018cow, the Koala, and the Camel represent a rare subset of FBOTs and use ZTF’s SN classification experiments to measure the rate to be at most 0.1% of the local core-collapse SN rate.

Cosmic neutrinos provide a unique window into the otherwise hidden mechanism of particle acceleration in astrophysical objects. The IceCube Collaboration recently reported the likely association of one high-energy neutrino with a flare from the relativistic jet of an active galaxy pointed towards the Earth. However a combined analysis of many similar active galaxies revealed no excess from the broader population, leaving the vast majority of the cosmic neutrino flux unexplained. Here we present the likely association of a radio-emitting tidal disruption event, AT2019dsg, with a second high-energy neutrino. AT2019dsg was identified as part of our systematic search for optical counterparts to high-energy neutrinos with the Zwicky Transient Facility. The probability of finding any coincident radio-emitting tidal disruption event by chance is 0.5%, while the probability of finding one as bright in bolometric energy flux as AT2019dsg is 0.2%. Our electromagnetic observations can be explained through a multizone model, with radio analysis revealing a central engine, embedded in a UV photosphere, that powers an extended synchrotron-emitting outflow. This provides an ideal site for petaelectronvolt neutrino production. Assuming that the association is genuine, our observations suggest that tidal disruption events with mildly relativistic outflows contribute to the cosmic neutrino flux.

Interaction-powered supernovae (SNe) explode within an optically thick circumstellar medium (CSM) that could be ejected during eruptive events. To identify and characterize such pre-explosion outbursts, we produce forcedphotometry light curves for 196 interacting SNe, mostly of Type IIn, detected by the Zwicky Transient Facility between early 2018 and 2020 June. Extensive tests demonstrate that we only expect a few false detections among the 70,000 analyzed pre-explosion images after applying quality cuts and bias corrections. We detect precursor eruptions prior to 18 Type IIn SNe and prior to the Type Ibn SN 2019uo. Precursors become brighter and more frequent in the last months before the SN and month-long outbursts brighter than magnitude -13 occur prior to 25% (5-69%, 95% confidence range) of all Type IIn SNe within the final three months before the explosion. With radiative energies of up to 1049erg, precursors could eject ~1M⊙of material. Nevertheless, SNe with detected precursors are not significantly more luminous than other SNe IIn, and the characteristic narrow hydrogen lines in their spectra typically originate from earlier, undetected mass-loss events. The long precursor durations require ongoing energy injection, and they could, for example, be powered by interaction or by a continuum-driven wind. Instabilities during the neon- and oxygen-burning phases are predicted to launch precursors in the final years to months before the explosion; however, the brightest precursor is 100 times more energetic than anticipated.

We present a systematic search for optical counterparts to 13 gravitational wave (GW) triggers involving at least one neutron star during LIGO/Virgo's third observing run (O3). We searched binary neutron star (BNS) and neutron star black hole (NSBH) merger localizations with the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) and undertook follow-up with the Global Relay of Observatories Watching Transients Happen (GROWTH) collaboration. The GW triggers had a median localization area of 4480 deg2, a median distance of 267 Mpc, and false-alarm rates ranging from 1.5 to 10-25 yr-1. The ZTF coverage in the g and r bands had a median enclosed probability of 39%, median depth of 20.8 mag, and median time lag between merger and the start of observations of 1.5 hr. The O3 follow-up by the GROWTH team comprised 340 UltraViolet/Optical/InfraRed (UVOIR) photometric points, 64 OIR spectra, and three radio images using 17 different telescopes. We find no promising kilonovae (radioactivity-powered counterparts), and we show how to convert the upper limits to constrain the underlying kilonova luminosity function. Initially, we assume that all GW triggers are bona fide astrophysical events regardless of false-alarm rate and that kilonovae accompanying BNS and NSBH mergers are drawn from a common population; later, we relax these assumptions. Assuming that all kilonovae are at least as luminous as the discovery magnitude of GW170817 (-16.1 mag), we calculate that our joint probability of detecting zero kilonovae is only 4.2%. If we assume that all kilonovae are brighter than-16.6 mag (the extrapolated peak magnitude of GW170817) and fade at a rate of 1 mag day-1 (similar to GW170817), the joint probability of zero detections is 7%. If we separate the NSBH and BNS populations based on the online classifications, the joint probability of zero detections, assuming all kilonovae are brighter than-16.6 mag, is 9.7% for NSBH and 7.9% for BNS mergers. Moreover, no more than 10-4, or φ > 30° to be consistent with our limits. We look forward to searches in the fourth GW observing run; even 17 neutron star mergers with only 50% coverage to a depth of-16 mag would constrain the maximum fraction of bright kilonovae to

Colors of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) in the first few days after explosion provide a potential discriminant between different models. In this paper, we present g-r colors of 65 SNe Ia discovered within 5 days from first light by the Zwicky Transient Facility in 2018, a sample that is about three times larger than that in the literature. We find that g-r colors are intrinsically rather homogeneous at early phases, with about half of the dispersion attributable to photometric uncertainties (σnoise ∼ σ int ∼ 0.18 mag). Colors are nearly constant starting from 6 days after first light (g-r ∼-0.15 mag), while the time evolution at earlier epochs is characterized by a continuous range of slopes, from events rapidly transitioning from redder to bluer colors (slope of ∼-0.25 mag day-1) to events with a flatter evolution. The continuum in the slope distribution is in good agreement both with models requiring some amount of 56Ni mixed in the outermost regions of the ejecta and with "double-detonation"models having thin helium layers MHe=0.01 M⊙) and varying carbon-oxygen core masses. At the same time, six events show evidence for a distinctive "red bump"signature predicted by double-detonation models with larger helium masses. We finally identify a significant correlation between the early-time g-r slopes and supernova brightness, with brighter events associated to flatter color evolution (p-value = 0.006). The distribution of slopes, however, is consistent with being drawn from a single population, with no evidence for two components as claimed in the literature based on B-V colors.

We present detailed observations of ZTF18abukavn (SN2018gep), discovered in high-cadence data from the Zwicky Transient Facility as a rapidly rising (1.4 ± 0.1 mag hr-1) and luminous (Mg,peak = -20 mag) transient. It is spectroscopically classified as a broad-lined stripped-envelope supernova (Ic-BL SN). The high peak luminosity (Lbol ≳ 3 × 1044 erg s-1), the short rise time (trise = 3 days in g band), and the blue colors at peak (g-r ∼ -0.4) all resemble the high-redshift Ic-BL iPTF16asu, as well as several other unclassified fast transients. The early discovery of SN2018gep (within an hour of shock breakout) enabled an intensive spectroscopic campaign, including the highest-temperature (Teff ≳ 40,000 K) spectra of a stripped-envelope SN. A retrospective search revealed luminous (Mg ∼ Mr ≈ mag) emission in the days to weeks before explosion, the first definitive detection of precursor emission for a Ic-BL. We find a limit on the isotropic gamma-ray energy release E γ,iso < 4.9 × 10 48 erg, a limit on X-ray emission LX < 1040 erg s-1, and a limit on radio emission ν Lν ≲ 1037 erg s-1. Taken together, we find that the early (< 10 days) data are best explained by shock breakout in a massive shell of dense circumstellar material (0.02 M⊙) at large radii (3 × 1014 cm) that was ejected in eruptive pre-explosion mass-loss episodes. The late-time (> 10 days) light curve requires an additional energy source, which could be the radioactive decay of Ni-56.

Early-time observations of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) are essential to constrain the properties of their progenitors. In this paper, we present high-quality light curves of 127 SNe Ia discovered by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) in 2018. We describe our method to perform forced point-spread function photometry, which can be applied to other types of extragalactic transients. With a planned cadence of six observations per night (three g + three r), all of the 127 SNe Ia are detected in both g and r bands more than 10 days (in the rest frame) prior to the epoch of g-band maximum light. The redshifts of these objects range from z = 0.0181 to 0.165; the median redshift is 0.074. Among the 127 SNe, 50 are detected at least 14 days prior to maximum light (in the rest frame), with a subset of nine objects being detected more than 17 days before g-band peak. This is the largest sample of young SNe Ia collected to date; it can be used to study the shape and color evolution of the rising light curves in unprecedented detail. We discuss six peculiar events in this sample: one 02cx-like event ZTF18abclfee (SN 2018crl), one Ia-CSM SN ZTF18aaykjei (SN 2018cxk), and four objects with possible super-Chandrasekhar mass progenitors: ZTF18abhpgje (SN 2018eul), ZTF18abdpvnd (SN 2018dvf), ZTF18aawpcel (SN 2018cir), and ZTF18abddmrf (SN 2018dsx).

We present the discovery of an optical transient (OT) in Messier 51, designated M51 OT2019-1 (also ZTF 19aadyppr, AT 2019abn, ATLAS19bzl), by the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). The OT rose over 15 days to an observed luminosity of Mr = -13 (νLν = 9 × 106 Lo), in the luminosity gap between novae and typical supernovae (SNe). Spectra during the outburst show a red continuum, Balmer emission with a velocity width of ≈400 km s-1, Ca ii and [Ca ii] emission, and absorption features characteristic of an F-type supergiant. The spectra and multiband light curves are similar to the so-called "SN impostors" and intermediate-luminosity red transients (ILRTs). We directly identify the likely progenitor in archival Spitzer Space Telescope imaging with a 4.5 μm luminosity of M[4.5] ≈ -12.2 mag and a [3.6]-[4.5] color redder than 0.74 mag, similar to those of the prototype ILRTs SN 2008S and NGC 300 OT2008-1. Intensive monitoring of M51 with Spitzer further reveals evidence for variability of the progenitor candidate at [4.5] in the years before the OT. The progenitor is not detected in pre-outburst Hubble Space Telescope optical and near-IR images. The optical colors during outburst combined with spectroscopic temperature constraints imply a higher reddening of E(B - V) ≈ 0.7 mag and higher intrinsic luminosity of Mr ≈ -14.9 mag (νLν = 5.3 × 107 Lo) near peak than seen in previous ILRT candidates. Moreover, the extinction estimate is higher on the rise than on the plateau, suggestive of an extended phase of circumstellar dust destruction. These results, enabled by the early discovery of M51 OT2019-1 and extensive pre-outburst archival coverage, offer new clues about the debated origins of ILRTs and may challenge the hypothesis that they arise from the electron-capture induced collapse of extreme asymptotic giant branch stars.

Gap plasmonic nanostructures are of great interest due to their ability to concentrate light into small volumes. Theoretical studies, considering quantum mechanical effects, have predicted the optimal spatial gap between adjacent nanoparticles to be in the subnanometer regime in order to achieve the strongest possible field enhancement. Here, we present a technology to fabricate gap plasmonic structures with subnanometer resolution, high reliability, and high throughput using collapsible nanofingers. This approach enables us to systematically investigate the effects of gap size and tunneling barrier height. The experimental results are consistent with previous findings as well as with a straightforward theoretical model that is presented here.

Gap plasmonic nanostructures are of great interest due to their ability to concentrate light into small volumes. Theoretical studies, considering quantum mechanical effects, have predicted the optimal spatial gap between adjacent nanoparticles to be in the subnanometer regime in order to achieve the strongest possible field enhancement. Here, we present a technology to fabricate gap plasmonic structures with subnanometer resolution, high reliability, and high throughput using collapsible nanofingers. This approach enables us to systematically investigate the effects of gap size and tunneling barrier height. The experimental results are consistent with previous findings as well as with a straightforward theoretical model that is presented here.