Optimizing Serendipitous Detections of Kilonovae: Cadence and Filter Selection

Understand

The rise of multi-messenger astronomy has brought with it the need to exploit all available data streams and learn more about the astrophysical objects that fall within its breadth.

• One possible avenue is the search for serendipitous optical/near-infrared counterparts of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) and gravitational-wave (GW) signals, known as kilonovae.
• With surveys such as the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), which observes the sky with a cadence of ~ three days, the existing counterpart locations are likely to be observed; however, due to the significant amount of sky to explore, it is difficult to search for these fast-evolving candidates.
• Thus, it is beneficial to optimize the survey cadence for realtime kilonova identification and enable further photometric and spectroscopic observations.