Charles Baltay

We present the La Silla Schmidt Southern Survey (LS4), a new wide-field, time-domain survey to be conducted with the 1 m ESO Schmidt telescope. The 268 megapixel LS4 camera mosaics 32 2k × 4k fully depleted CCDs, providing a ∼20 deg² field of view with 1^″ pixel⁻¹ resolution. The LS4 camera will have excellent performance at longer wavelengths: in a standard 45 s exposure the expected 5σ limiting magnitudes in g, i, z are ∼21.5, ∼20.9, and ∼20.3 mag (AB), respectively. The telescope design requires a novel filter holder that fixes different bandpasses over each quadrant of the detector. Two quadrants will have i band, while the other two will be g and z band with color information obtained by dithering targets across the different quadrants. The majority (90%) of the observing time will be used to conduct a public survey that monitors the extragalactic sky at both moderate (3 days) and high (1 day) cadence, as well as focused observations within the Galactic plane and bulge. Alerts from the public survey will be broadcast to the community via established alert brokers. LS4 will run concurrently with the Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST). The combination of LS4+LSST will enable detailed holistic monitoring of many nearby transients: high-cadence LS4 observations will resolve the initial rise and peak of the light curve while less-frequent but deeper observations by LSST will characterize the years before and after explosion. Here, we summarize the primary science objectives of LS4 including microlensing events in the Galaxy, extragalactic transients powered by massive black holes or stellar explosions, the search for electromagnetic counterparts to multi-messenger events, and supernova cosmology.

We present a new empirical Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) model with three chromatic flux variation templates: one phase dependent and two phase independent. No underlying dust extinction model or patterns of intrinsic variability are assumed. Implemented with Stan and trained using spectrally binned Nearby Supernova Factory spectrophotometry, we examine this model's 2D, phase-independent flux variation space using two motivated basis representations. In both, the first phase-independent template captures variation that appears dust-like, while the second captures a combination of effectively intrinsic variability and second-order dust-like effects. We find that approximately 13% of the modeled phase-independent flux variance is not dust-like. Previous empirical SN Ia models either assume an effective dust extinction recipe in their architecture, or only allow for a single mode of phase-independent variation. The presented results demonstrate such an approach may be insufficient, because it could "leak" noticeable intrinsic variation into phase-independent templates.

We present a new empirical Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) model with three chromatic flux variation templates: one phase dependent and two phase independent. No underlying dust extinction model or patterns of intrinsic variability are assumed. Implemented with S tan and trained using spectrally binned Nearby Supernova Factory spectrophotometry, we examine this model's 2D, phase-independent flux variation space using two motivated basis representations. In both, the first phase-independent template captures variation that appears dust-like, while the second captures a combination of effectively intrinsic variability and second-order dust-like effects. We find that ≈13% of the modeled phase-independent flux variance is not dust-like. Previous empirical SN Ia models either assume an effective dust extinction recipe in their architecture, or only allow for a single mode of phase-independent variation. The presented results demonstrate such an approach may be insufficient, because it could “leak” noticeable intrinsic variation into phase-independent templates.

We present an analysis of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) from the Carnegie Supernova Project I and II and extend the Hubble diagram from optical to near-infrared wavelengths (uBgVriYJH). We calculate the Hubble constant, H ₀, using various distance calibrators: Cepheids, the tip of the red giant branch (TRGB), and surface brightness fluctuations (SBFs). Combining all methods of calibration, we derive H ₀ = 71.76 ± 0.58 (stat) ± 1.19 (sys) km s⁻¹ Mpc⁻¹ from the B band and H ₀ = 73.22 ± 0.68 (stat) ± 1.28 (sys) km s⁻¹ Mpc⁻¹ from the H band. By assigning equal weight to the Cepheid, TRGB, and SBF calibrators, we derive the systematic errors required for consistency in the first rung of the distance ladder, resulting in a systematic error of 1.2 ∼ 1.3 km s⁻¹ Mpc⁻¹ in H ₀. As a result, relative to the statistics-only uncertainty, the tension between the late-time H ₀ we derive by combining the various distance calibrators and the early-time H ₀ from the cosmic microwave background is reduced. The highest precision in SN Ia luminosity is found in the Y band (0.12 ± 0.01 mag), as defined by the intrinsic scatter (σ _int). We revisit SN Ia Hubble residual-host mass correlations and recover previous results that these correlations do not change significantly between the optical and near-infrared wavelengths. Finally, SNe Ia that explode beyond 10 kpc from their host centers exhibit smaller dispersion in their luminosity, confirming our earlier findings. A reduced effect of dust in the outskirts of hosts may be responsible for this effect.

We present the second and final release of optical spectroscopy of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) obtained during the first and second phases of the Carnegie Supernova Project (CSP-I and CSP-II). The newly released data consist of 148 spectra of 30 SNe Ia observed in the course of CSP-I and 234 spectra of 127 SNe Ia obtained during CSP-II. We also present 216 optical spectra of 46 historical SNe Ia, including 53 spectra of 30 SNe Ia observed by the Calán/Tololo Supernova Survey. We combine these observations with previously published CSP data and publicly available spectra to compile a large sample of measurements of spectroscopic parameters at maximum light, consisting of pseudo-equivalent widths and expansion velocities of selected features for 232 CSP and historical SNe Ia (including more than 1000 spectra). Finally, we review some of the strongest correlations between spectroscopic and photometric properties of SNe Ia. Specifically, we define two samples: one consisting of SNe Ia discovered by targeted searches (most of them CSP-I objects) and the other composed of SNe Ia discovered by untargeted searches, which includes most of the CSP-II objects. The analyzed correlations are similar for both samples. We find a larger incidence of SNe Ia belonging to the cool and broad-line Branch subtypes among the events discovered by targeted searches, shallow-silicon SNe Ia are present with similar frequencies in both samples, while core normal SNe Ia are more frequent in untargeted searches.

We present the largest and most homogeneous collection of near-infrared (NIR) spectra of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia): 339 spectra of 98 individual SNe obtained as part of the Carnegie Supernova Project-II. These spectra, obtained with the FIRE spectrograph on the 6.5 m Magellan Baade telescope, have a spectral range of 0.8–2.5 μm. Using this sample, we explore the NIR spectral diversity of SNe Ia and construct a template of spectral time series as a function of the light-curve-shape parameter, color stretch s _BV . Principal component analysis is applied to characterize the diversity of the spectral features and reduce data dimensionality to a smaller subspace. Gaussian process regression is then used to model the subspace dependence on phase and light-curve shape and the associated uncertainty. Our template is able to predict spectral variations that are correlated with s _BV , such as the hallmark NIR features: Mg ii at early times and the H-band break after peak. Using this template reduces the systematic uncertainties in K-corrections by ∼90% compared to those from the Hsiao template. These uncertainties, defined as the mean K-correction differences computed with the color-matched template and observed spectra, are on the level of 4 × 10⁻⁴ mag on average. This template can serve as the baseline spectral energy distribution for light-curve fitters and can identify peculiar spectral features that might point to compelling physics. The results presented here will substantially improve future SN Ia cosmological experiments, for both nearby and distant samples.

We apply the color–magnitude intercept calibration method (CMAGIC) to the Nearby Supernova Factory SNe Ia spectrophotometric data set. The currently existing CMAGIC parameters are the slope and intercept of a straight line fit to the linear region in the color–magnitude diagram, which occurs over a span of approximately 30 days after maximum brightness. We define a new parameter, ω _XY , the size of the “bump” feature near maximum brightness for arbitrary filters X and Y. We find a significant correlation between the slope of the linear region, β _XY , in the CMAGIC diagram and ω _XY . These results may be used to our advantage, as they are less affected by extinction than parameters defined as a function of time. Additionally, ω _XY is computed independently of templates. We find that current empirical templates are successful at reproducing the features described in this work, particularly SALT3, which correctly exhibits the negative correlation between slope and “bump” size seen in our data. In 1D simulations, we show that the correlation between the size of the “bump” feature and β _XY can be understood as a result of chemical mixing due to large-scale Rayleigh–Taylor instabilities.

We calibrate spectrophotometric optical spectra of 32 stars commonly used as standard stars, referenced to 14 stars already on the Hubble Space Telescope–based CALSPEC flux system. Observations of CALSPEC and non-CALSPEC stars were obtained with the SuperNova Integral Field Spectrograph over the wavelength range 3300–9400 Å as calibration for the Nearby Supernova Factory cosmology experiment. In total, this analysis used 4289 standard-star spectra taken on photometric nights. As a modern cosmology analysis, all presubmission methodological decisions were made with the flux scale and external comparison results blinded. The large number of spectra per star allows us to treat the wavelength-by-wavelength calibration for all nights simultaneously with a Bayesian hierarchical model, thereby enabling a consistent treatment of the Type Ia supernova cosmology analysis and the calibration on which it critically relies. We determine the typical per-observation repeatability (median 14 mmag for exposures ≳5 s), the Maunakea atmospheric transmission distribution (median dispersion of 7 mmag with uncertainty 1 mmag), and the scatter internal to our CALSPEC reference stars (median of 8 mmag). We also check our standards against literature filter photometry, finding generally good agreement over the full 12 mag range. Overall, the mean of our system is calibrated to the mean of CALSPEC at the level of ∼3 mmag. With our large number of observations, careful cross-checks, and 14 reference stars, our results are the best calibration yet achieved with an integral-field spectrograph, and among the best calibrated surveys.