arXiv subjects

Rebekah Hounsell

Publications and source records attributed to Rebekah Hounsell.

26 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2023

Roman CCS White Paper: Options to Increase the Coverage Area of Prism Time Series in the High-Latitude Time Domain Core Community Survey

The current reference High-latitude time domain survey increases the completeness of transients with prism temporal time series data by adjusting the ratio of prism-to-imaging time. However, there are two other nobs that allow for a more complete prism coverage: prism cadence and exposure time. In this white paper, we discuss how changes to the prism cadence and exposure time -- in order to increase the fraction of observed transients with spectral time series -- affect supernova cosmology, transient typing and template building, and the study of rare transients.

astro-ph.IM↗

arXiv2023

A Synthetic Roman Space Telescope High-Latitude Time-Domain Survey: Supernovae in the Deep Field

NASA will launch the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope (Roman) in the second half of this decade, which will allow for a generation-defining measurement of dark energy through multiple probes, including Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). To improve decisions on survey strategy, we have created the first simulations of realistic Roman images that include artificial SNe Ia injected as point sources in the images. Our analysis combines work done on Roman simulations for weak gravitational lensing studies as well as catalog-level simulations of SN samples. We have created a time series of images over two years containing $\sim$ 1,050 SNe Ia, covering a 1 square degree subarea of a planned 5 square degree deep survey. We have released these images publicly for community use along with input catalogs of all injected sources. We create secondary products from these images by generating coadded images and demonstrating recovery of transient sources using image subtraction. We perform first-use analyses on these images in order to measure galaxy-detection efficiency, point source-detection efficiency, and host-galaxy association biases. The simulated images can be found here: https://roman.ipac.caltech.edu/sims/SN_Survey_Image_sim.html.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2023

Three Saturn-mass planets transiting F-type stars revealed with TESS and HARPS

While the sample of confirmed exoplanets continues to increase, the population of transiting exoplanets around early-type stars is still limited. These planets allow us to investigate the planet properties and formation pathways over a wide range of stellar masses and study the impact of high irradiation on hot Jupiters orbiting such stars. We report the discovery of TOI-615b, TOI-622b, and TOI-2641b, three Saturn-mass planets transiting main sequence, F-type stars. The planets were identified by the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) and confirmed with complementary ground-based and radial velocity observations. TOI-615b is a highly irradiated ($\sim$1277 $F_{\oplus}$) and bloated Saturn-mass planet (1.69$^{+0.05}_{-0.06}$$R_{Jup}$ and 0.43$^{+0.09}_{-0.08}$$M_{Jup}$) in a 4.66 day orbit transiting a 6850 K star. TOI-622b has a radius of 0.82$^{+0.03}_{-0.03}$$R_{Jup}$ and a mass of 0.30$^{+0.07}_{-0.08}$~$M_{Jup}$ in a 6.40 day orbit. Despite its high insolation flux ($\sim$600 $F_{\oplus}$), TOI-622b does not show any evidence of radius inflation. TOI-2641b is a 0.39$^{+0.02}_{-0.04}$$M_{Jup}$ planet in a 4.88 day orbit with a grazing transit (b = 1.04$^{+0.05}_{-0.06 }$) that results in a poorly constrained radius of 1.61$^{+0.46}_{-0.64}$$R_{Jup}$. Additionally, TOI-615b is considered attractive for atmospheric studies via transmission spectroscopy with ground-based spectrographs and $\textit{JWST}$. Future atmospheric and spin-orbit alignment observations are essential since they can provide information on the atmospheric composition, formation and migration of exoplanets across various stellar types.

astro-ph.EP↗

arXiv2022

High-Precision Redshifts for Type Ia Supernovae with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope P127 Prism

We present results from simulating slitless spectroscopic observations with the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope's (Roman) Wide-Field Instrument (WFI) P127 prism spanning 0.75 $μm$ to 1.8 $μm$. We quantify the efficiency of recovered Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) redshifts, as a function of P127 prism exposure time, to guide planning for future observing programs with the Roman prism. Generating the two-dimensional dispersed images and extracting one-dimensional spectra is done with the slitless spectroscopy package pyLINEAR along with custom-written software. From the analysis of 1698 simulated SN Ia P127 prism spectra, we show the efficiency of recovering SN redshifts to $z\lesssim3.0$, highlighting the exceptional sensitivity of the Roman P127 prism. Redshift recovery is assessed by setting a requirement of $σ_z = (\left|z - z_\mathrm{true} \right|)/(1+z) \leq 0.01$. We find that 3 hr exposures are sufficient for meeting this requirement, for $\gtrsim 50\%$ of the sample of mock SNe Ia at $z\approx2$ and within $\pm5$ days of rest-frame maximum light in the optical. We also show that a 1 hr integration of Roman can achieve the same precision in completeness to a depth of $24.4 \pm 0.06$ AB mag (or $z\lesssim 1$). Implications for cosmological studies with Roman P127 prism spectra of SNe Ia are also discussed.

astro-ph.GA↗

arXiv2022

The Nova KT Eri Is a Recurrent Nova With a Recurrence Time-Scale of 40-50 Years

KT Eridani was a very fast nova in 2009 peaking at V=5.42 mag. We marshal large data sets of photometry to finally work out the nature of KT Eri. From the TESS light curve, as confirmed with our radial velocity curve, we find an orbital period of 2.61595 days. With our 272 spectral energy distributions from simultaneous BVRIJHK measures, the companion star has a temperature of 6200$\pm$500 K. Our century-long average in quiescence has V=14.5. With the Gaia distance (5110$^{+920}_{-430}$ parsecs), the absolute magnitude is +0.7$\pm$0.3. We converted this absolute magnitude (corrected to the disc light alone) to accretion rates, with a full integration of the alpha-disc model. This accretion rate is very high at 3.5x10$^{-7}$ solar masses per year. Our search and analysis of archival photographs shows that no eruption occurred from 1928--1954 or after 1969. With our analysis of the optical light curve, the X-ray light curve, and the radial velocity curve, we derive a white dwarf mass of 1.25$\pm$0.03 solar masses. With the high white dwarf mass and very-high accretion rate, KT Eri must require a short time to accumulate the required mass to trigger the next nova event. Our detailed calculations give a recurrence time-scale of 12 years with a total range of 5--50 years. When combined with the archival constraints, we conclude that the recurrence time-scale must be between 40--50 years. So, KT Eri is certainly a recurrent nova, with the prior eruption remaining undiscovered in a solar gap of coverage from 1959 to 1969.

astro-ph.SR↗

arXiv2022

Evaluating and Optimizing a Slitless Prism for Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope SN Cosmology

This work presents a set of studies addressing the use of the low-dispersion slitless prism on Roman for SN spectroscopy as part of the Roman High Latitude Time Domain Survey (HLTDS). We find SN spectral energy distributions including prism data carry more information than imaging alone at fixed total observing time, improving redshift measurements and sub-typing of SNe. The Roman field of view will typically include ~ 10 SNe Ia at observable redshifts at a range of phases (the multiplexing of host galaxies is much greater as they are always present), building up SN spectral time series without targeted observations. We show that fitting these time series extracts more information than stacking the data over all the phases, resulting in a large improvement in precision for SN Ia subclassification measurements. A prism on Roman thus significantly enhances scientific opportunities for the mission, and is particularly important for the Roman SN cosmology program to provide the systematics-controlled measurement that is a focus of the Roman dark energy mission. Optimizing the prism parameters, we conclude that the blue cutoff should be set as blue as the prism image quality allows (~ 7500A), the red cutoff should be set to ~ 18000A to minimize thermal background, and the two-pixel dispersion should be >~ 70.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2020

Cosmology with the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope -- Multi-Probe Strategies

We simulate the scientific performance of the Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope (WFIRST) High Latitude Survey (HLS) on dark energy and modified gravity. The 1.6 year HLS Reference survey is currently envisioned to image 2000 deg$^2$ in multiple bands to a depth of $\sim$26.5 in Y, J, H and to cover the same area with slit-less spectroscopy beyond z=3. The combination of deep, multi-band photometry and deep spectroscopy will allow scientists to measure the growth and geometry of the Universe through a variety of cosmological probes (e.g., weak lensing, galaxy clusters, galaxy clustering, BAO, Type Ia supernova) and, equally, it will allow an exquisite control of observational and astrophysical systematic effects. In this paper we explore multi-probe strategies that can be implemented given WFIRST's instrument capabilities. We model cosmological probes individually and jointly and account for correlated systematics and statistical uncertainties due to the higher order moments of the density field. We explore different levels of observational systematics for the WFIRST survey (photo-z and shear calibration) and ultimately run a joint likelihood analysis in N-dim parameter space. We find that the WFIRST reference survey alone (no external data sets) can achieve a standard dark energy FoM of >300 when including all probes. This assumes no information from external data sets and realistic assumptions for systematics. Our study of the HLS reference survey should be seen as part of a future community driven effort to simulate and optimize the science return of WFIRST.

astro-ph.CO↗

arXiv2019

The Next Generation of Cosmological Measurements with Type Ia Supernovae

While Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia) are one of the most mature cosmological probes, the next era promises to be extremely exciting in the number of different ways SNe Ia are used to measure various cosmological parameters. Here we review the experiments in the 2020s that will yield orders of magnitudes more SNe Ia, and the new understandings and capabilities to constrain systematic uncertainties at a level to match these statistics. We then discuss five different cosmological probes with SNe Ia: the conventional Hubble diagram for measuring dark energy properties, the distance ladder for measuring the Hubble constant, peculiar velocities and weak lensing for measuring sigma8 and strong-lens measurements of H0 and other cosmological parameters. For each of these probes, we discuss the experiments that will provide the best measurements and also the SN Ia-related systematics that affect each one.

astro-ph.CO↗