IIb or not IIb: A Catalog of ZTF Kilonova Imposters

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Barna, Tyler, Fremling, Christoffer, Ahumada, Tomas, Andreoni, Igor, Banerjee, Smaranika, Bloom, Joshua S., Bulla, Mattia, Chen, Tracy X., Coughlin, Michael W., Dietrich, Tim, Hall, Xander J., Junell, Alexandra, Rusholme, Ben, Sollerman, Jesper, Sravan, Niharika
Format: Preprint
Published: 2025
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author Barna, Tyler
Fremling, Christoffer
Ahumada, Tomas
Andreoni, Igor
Banerjee, Smaranika
Bloom, Joshua S.
Bulla, Mattia
Chen, Tracy X.
Coughlin, Michael W.
Dietrich, Tim
Hall, Xander J.
Junell, Alexandra
Rusholme, Ben
Sollerman, Jesper
Sravan, Niharika
author_facet Barna, Tyler
Fremling, Christoffer
Ahumada, Tomas
Andreoni, Igor
Banerjee, Smaranika
Bloom, Joshua S.
Bulla, Mattia
Chen, Tracy X.
Coughlin, Michael W.
Dietrich, Tim
Hall, Xander J.
Junell, Alexandra
Rusholme, Ben
Sollerman, Jesper
Sravan, Niharika
contents Among the various classes of fast optical transients (FOTs), kilonovae (KNe), which can emerge as a result of neutron star mergers, are extremely challenging to observe because of not only the rapid timescale on which they fade (on the order of days), but also due to the relative scarcity of their occurrence. This scarcity is compounded by the large number of other FOTs that may initially resemble the characteristic rise of a KNe. While these objects can be ruled out as candidate KNe by taking spectroscopy, a method of confidently ruling out transients based on photometric analysis alone would be incredibly valuable. We describe the compilation of various "imposter" transients, including a plurality of IIb SNe, and investigate a number of comparative metrics by which one might be able to remove transients from consideration without the use of spectroscopy. We provide a list of these objects and their classifications as well as a glossary of the transient types included in the sample.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2506_15900
institution arXiv
publishDate 2025
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle IIb or not IIb: A Catalog of ZTF Kilonova Imposters
Barna, Tyler
Fremling, Christoffer
Ahumada, Tomas
Andreoni, Igor
Banerjee, Smaranika
Bloom, Joshua S.
Bulla, Mattia
Chen, Tracy X.
Coughlin, Michael W.
Dietrich, Tim
Hall, Xander J.
Junell, Alexandra
Rusholme, Ben
Sollerman, Jesper
Sravan, Niharika
High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
Among the various classes of fast optical transients (FOTs), kilonovae (KNe), which can emerge as a result of neutron star mergers, are extremely challenging to observe because of not only the rapid timescale on which they fade (on the order of days), but also due to the relative scarcity of their occurrence. This scarcity is compounded by the large number of other FOTs that may initially resemble the characteristic rise of a KNe. While these objects can be ruled out as candidate KNe by taking spectroscopy, a method of confidently ruling out transients based on photometric analysis alone would be incredibly valuable. We describe the compilation of various "imposter" transients, including a plurality of IIb SNe, and investigate a number of comparative metrics by which one might be able to remove transients from consideration without the use of spectroscopy. We provide a list of these objects and their classifications as well as a glossary of the transient types included in the sample.
title IIb or not IIb: A Catalog of ZTF Kilonova Imposters
topic High Energy Astrophysical Phenomena
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2506.15900