TY - JOUR
T1 - Rapidly Evolving Transients in Archival ZTF Public Alerts
AU - Li, Wenxiong
AU - Arcavi, Iair
AU - Nakar, Ehud
AU - Filippenko, Alexei V.
AU - Brink, Thomas G.
AU - Zheng, Wei Kang
AU - Yang, Yi
AU - Lam, Marco C.
AU - Keinan, Ido
AU - Brennan, Seán J.
AU - Shitrit, Noi
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023. The Author(s). Published by the American Astronomical Society.
PY - 2023/10/1
Y1 - 2023/10/1
N2 - We search the archival Zwicky Transient Facility public survey for rapidly evolving transient (RET) candidates based on well-defined criteria between 2018 May and 2021 December. The search yielded 19 bona fide RET candidates, corresponding to a discovery rate of ∼5.2 events per year. Even with a Galactic latitude cut of 20°, eight of the 19 events (∼42%) are Galactic, including one with a light-curve shape closely resembling that of the GW170817 kilonova (KN). An additional event is a nova in M31. Four out of the 19 events (∼21%) are confirmed extragalactic RETs (one confirmed here for the first time) and the origin of six additional events cannot be determined. We did not find any extragalactic events resembling the GW170817 KN, from which we obtain an upper limit on the volumetric rate of GW170817-like KNe of R ≤ 2400 Gpc−3 yr−1 (95% confidence). These results can be used for quantifying contaminants to RET searches in transient alert streams, specifically when searching for KNe independently of gravitational-wave and gamma-ray-burst triggers.
AB - We search the archival Zwicky Transient Facility public survey for rapidly evolving transient (RET) candidates based on well-defined criteria between 2018 May and 2021 December. The search yielded 19 bona fide RET candidates, corresponding to a discovery rate of ∼5.2 events per year. Even with a Galactic latitude cut of 20°, eight of the 19 events (∼42%) are Galactic, including one with a light-curve shape closely resembling that of the GW170817 kilonova (KN). An additional event is a nova in M31. Four out of the 19 events (∼21%) are confirmed extragalactic RETs (one confirmed here for the first time) and the origin of six additional events cannot be determined. We did not find any extragalactic events resembling the GW170817 KN, from which we obtain an upper limit on the volumetric rate of GW170817-like KNe of R ≤ 2400 Gpc−3 yr−1 (95% confidence). These results can be used for quantifying contaminants to RET searches in transient alert streams, specifically when searching for KNe independently of gravitational-wave and gamma-ray-burst triggers.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85174249929&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3847/1538-4357/ace4bc
DO - 10.3847/1538-4357/ace4bc
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AN - SCOPUS:85174249929
SN - 0004-637X
VL - 955
JO - Astrophysical Journal
JF - Astrophysical Journal
IS - 2
M1 - 144
ER -