The Zwicky Transient Facility: Science Objectives

TLDR

The Zwicky Transient Facility is a new time‑domain survey using a dedicated camera on the Palomar 48‑inch telescope, offering a 47 deg² field of view and 8‑second readout, and represents a 10 % scale model of the forthcoming LSST with a single 1‑m class telescope. The primary science objectives of ZTF focus on supernova physics, relativistic explosions, multi‑messenger astrophysics, supernova cosmology, AGN and tidal disruption events, stellar variability, and Solar System objects. ZTF conducts public surveys that image the northern sky every three nights in g and r, the Galactic plane nightly, and distributes real‑time alerts to brokers, while a consortium of partner universities carries out additional boutique surveys. The million‑alert‑per‑night output enables exploration of transient and variable phenomena brighter than r ≈ 20.5 across timescales from minutes to years.

Abstract

The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), a public-private enterprise, is a new time domain survey employing a dedicated camera on the Palomar 48-inch Schmidt telescope with a 47 deg$^2$ field of view and 8 second readout time. It is well positioned in the development of time domain astronomy, offering operations at 10% of the scale and style of the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) with a single 1-m class survey telescope. The public surveys will cover the observable northern sky every three nights in g and r filters and the visible Galactic plane every night in g and r. Alerts generated by these surveys are sent in real time to brokers. A consortium of universities which provided funding ("partnership") are undertaking several boutique surveys. The combination of these surveys producing one million alerts per night allows for exploration of transient and variable astrophysical phenomena brighter than r $\sim$ 20.5 on timescales of minutes to years. We describe the primary science objectives driving ZTF including the physics of supernovae and relativistic explosions, multi-messenger astrophysics, supernova cosmology, active galactic nuclei and tidal disruption events, stellar variability, and Solar System objects.