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arXiv · 2305.12974

Rapidly Evolving Transients in Archival ZTF Public Alerts

Wenxiong Li·Iair Arcavi·Ehud Nakar·Alexei V. Filippenko·Thomas G. Brink·WeiKang Zheng·Marco C. Lam·Ido Keinan·Seán J. Brennan·Noi Shitrit
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Abstract

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 $\sim 5.2$ events per year. Even with a Galactic latitude cut of $20^\circ$, 8 of the 19 events ($\sim 42$%) 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 ($\sim 21$%) are confirmed extragalactic RETs (one confirmed here for the first time) and the origin of 6 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 $R \le$ 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 kilonovae independently of gravitational-wave and gamma-ray-burst triggers.

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Wenxiong Li, Iair Arcavi, Ehud Nakar, Alexei V. Filippenko, Thomas G. Brink, WeiKang Zheng, Marco C. Lam, Ido Keinan, Seán J. Brennan, Noi Shitrit. 2023-05-22. Rapidly Evolving Transients in Archival ZTF Public Alerts. https://arxiv.org/abs/2305.12974

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