Eric C. Bellm
A5074187024- Gamma-ray bursts and supernovae
- Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations
- Stellar, planetary, and galactic studies
- Pulsars and Gravitational Waves Research
- Astronomy and Astrophysical Research
- Astrophysics and Cosmic Phenomena
- Astronomical Observations and Instrumentation
- Astro and Planetary Science
- Particle Detector Development and Performance
- Solar and Space Plasma Dynamics
- Particle Accelerators and Free-Electron Lasers
- Astrophysics and Star Formation Studies
- Adaptive optics and wavefront sensing
- Nuclear Physics and Applications
- Particle accelerators and beam dynamics
- Galaxies: Formation, Evolution, Phenomena
- Geophysics and Gravity Measurements
- Superconducting Materials and Applications
- SAS software applications and methods
- High-pressure geophysics and materials
- Neutrino Physics Research
- Magnetic confinement fusion research
- Radio Astronomy Observations and Technology
- Atomic and Subatomic Physics Research
- Scientific Computing and Data Management
University of Washington
2017-2025
City University of Seattle
2018-2025
California Institute of Technology
2012-2021
Seattle University
2019-2021
University of California, Berkeley
2006-2018
Optica
2014-2016
AdTech Optics (United States)
2014-2016
Paul Scherrer Institute
2008-2009
Berkeley College
2009
University of California, Santa Cruz
2009
The Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) mission, launched on 2012 June 13, is the first focusing high-energy X-ray telescope in orbit. NuSTAR operates band from 3 to 79 keV, extending sensitivity of far beyond ∼10 keV cutoff achieved by all previous satellites. inherently low background associated with concentrating light enables probe hard sky a more than 100-fold improvement over collimated or coded mask instruments that have operated this bandpass. Using its unprecedented...
The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) is a new optical time-domain survey that uses the Palomar 48 inch Schmidt telescope. A custom-built wide-field camera provides 47 deg2 field of view and 8 s readout time, yielding more than an order magnitude improvement in speed relative to its predecessor survey, Factory. We describe design implementation observing system. ZTF data system at Infrared Processing Analysis Center near-real-time reduction identify moving varying objects. outline analysis...
The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), a public-private enterprise, is new time domain survey employing dedicated camera on the Palomar 48-inch Schmidt telescope with 47 deg$^2$ field of view and 8 second readout time. It well positioned in development astronomy, offering operations at 10% scale style Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) single 1-m class telescope. public surveys will cover observable northern sky every three nights g r filters visible Galactic plane night r. Alerts...
Merging neutron stars offer an exquisite laboratory for simultaneously studying strong-field gravity and matter in extreme environments. We establish the physical association of electromagnetic counterpart EM170817 to gravitational waves (GW170817) detected from merging stars. By synthesizing a panchromatic dataset, we demonstrate that are long-sought production site forging heavy elements by r-process nucleosynthesis. The weak gamma-rays seen dissimilar classical short gamma-ray bursts with...
We report the first plausible optical electromagnetic counterpart to a (candidate) binary black hole merger. Detected by Zwicky Transient Facility, flare is consistent with expectations for kicked merger in accretion disk of an active galactic nucleus [B. McKernan, K. E. S. Ford, I. Bartos et al., Astrophys. J. Lett. 884, L50 (2019)AJLEEY2041-821310.3847/2041-8213/ab4886] and unlikely [<O(0.01%))] due intrinsic variability this source. The lack color evolution implies that it not supernova...
We present a novel algorithm for scheduling the observations of time-domain imaging surveys. Our Integer Linear Programming approach optimizes an observing plan entire night by assigning targets to temporal blocks, enabling strict control number exposures obtained per field and minimizing filter changes. A subsequent optimization step minimizes slew times between each observation. metric self-consistently weights contributions from time-varying airmass, seeing, sky brightness maximize...
The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) Observing System (OS) is the data collector for ZTF project to study astrophysical phenomena in time domain. OS based upon 48-inch aperture Schmidt-type design Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory Southern California. It incorporates new telescope aspheric corrector optics, dome and drives, a large-format exposure shutter, flat-field illumination system, robotic bandpass filter exchanger, key element: 47-square-degree, 600 megapixel cryogenic CCD...
The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) is a new robotic time-domain survey currently in progress using the Palomar 48-inch Schmidt Telescope. ZTF uses 47 square degree field with 600 megapixel camera to scan entire northern visible sky at rates of ~3760 degrees/hour median depths g ~ 20.8 and r 20.6 mag (AB, 5sigma 30 sec). We describe Science Data System that housed IPAC, Caltech. This comprises data-processing pipelines, alert production system, data archive, user interfaces for accessing...
Supermassive black hole binaries (SMBHBs) at sub-parsec separations should be common in galactic nuclei, as a result of frequent galaxy mergers. Hydrodynamical simulations circumbinary discs predict strong periodic modulation the mass accretion rate on time-scales comparable to orbital period binary. As result, SMBHBs may recognized by their brightness. We conducted statistical search for variability sample 35,383 spectroscopically confirmed quasars photometric database Palomar Transient...
Abstract We present a public catalog of transients from the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) Bright Survey, magnitude-limited ( m < 19 mag in either g or r filter) survey for extragalactic ZTF stream. introduce cuts on coverage, sky visibility around peak light, and other properties unconnected to nature transient, show that resulting statistical sample is spectroscopically 97% complete at <18 mag, 93% <18.5 75% <19 mag. summarize fundamental this population, identifying distinct...
Tidal disruption events (TDEs) offer a unique way to study dormant black holes. While the number of observed TDEs has grown thanks emergence wide-field surveys in past few decades, questions regarding nature optical, UV, and X-ray emission remain. We present uniformly selected sample 30 spectroscopically classified from Zwicky Transient Facility Phase I survey operations with follow-up \textit{Swift} UV observations. Through our investigation into correlations between light curve properties,...
The origins of the high-energy cosmic neutrino flux remain largely unknown. Recently, one was associated with a tidal disruption event (TDE). Here we present AT2019fdr, an exceptionally luminous TDE candidate, coincident another neutrino. Our observations, including bright dust echo and soft late-time x-ray emission, further support origin this flare. probability finding two such events by chance is just 0.034%. We evaluate several models for production show that AT2019fdr capable producing...
Abstract We conduct a systematic tidal disruption event (TDE) demographics analysis using the largest sample of optically selected TDEs. A flux-limited, spectroscopically complete 33 TDEs is constructed Zwicky Transient Facility over 3 yr (from 2018 October to 2021 September). infer black hole (BH) mass ( M BH ) with host galaxy scaling relations, showing that ranges from 10 5.1 ⊙ 8.2 . developed survey efficiency corrected maximum volume method rates. The rest-frame g -band luminosity...
Abstract We present a search for extragalactic fast blue optical transients (FBOTs) during Phase I of the Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF). identify 38 candidates with durations above half-maximum light 1 day < t 1/2 12 days, which 28 have ( g − r ≲ −0.2 mag) colors at peak light. Of (28 FBOTs), 19 (13) can be spectroscopically classified as core-collapse supernovae (SNe): 11 (8) H- or He-rich (Type II/IIb/Ib) SNe, 6 (4) interacting IIn/Ibn) and 2 (1) H&He-poor Ic/Ic-BL) SNe. Two FBOTs...
The accretion disks of active galactic nuclei (AGN) are promising locations for the merger compact objects detected by gravitational wave (GW) observatories. Embedded within a baryon-rich, high density environment, mergers AGN only GW channel where an electromagnetic (EM) counterpart must occur (whether detectable or not). Considering with unusual flaring activity observed Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF), we describe search candidate EM counterparts to binary black hole (BBH) LIGO/Virgo in...
Abstract Narrow transient emission lines (flash-ionization features) in early supernova (SN) spectra trace the presence of circumstellar material (CSM) around massive progenitor stars core-collapse SNe. The disappear within days after SN explosion, suggesting that this is spatially confined, and originates from enhanced mass loss shortly (months to a few years) prior explosion. We performed systematic survey H-rich (Type II) SNe discovered less than 2 explosion during first phase Zwicky...
ABSTRACT The origin of cosmic high-energy neutrinos remains largely unexplained. For neutrino alerts from IceCube, a coincidence with time-variable emission has been seen for three different types accreting black holes: (1) gamma-ray flare blazar (TXS 0506+056), (2) an optical transient following stellar tidal disruption event (TDE; AT2019dsg), and (3) outburst active galactic nucleus (AGN; AT2019fdr). the latter two sources, infrared follow-up observations revealed powerful reverberation...
Context. Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) cosmology studies will soon be dominated by systematic, uncertainties, rather than statistical ones. Thus, it is crucial to understand the unknown phenomena potentially affecting their luminosity that may remain, such as astrophysical biases. For accurate application in studies, SN magnitudes need standardised; namely, they must corrected for correlation with light-curve width and colour. Aims. Here, we investigate how standardisation procedure used reduce...
The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) survey generates real-time alerts for optical transients, variables, and moving objects discovered in its wide-field survey. We describe the ZTF alert stream distribution processing (filtering) system. system uses existing open-source technologies developed industry: Kafka, a streaming platform, Avro, binary serialization format. used this provide number of advantages use case, including (1) built-in replication, scalability, rewind mechanism; (2)...
Abstract The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) is performing a three-day cadence survey of the visible northern sky (∼3 π ) with newly found transient candidates announced via public alerts. ZTF Bright Survey (BTS) large spectroscopic campaign to complement photometric survey. BTS endeavors spectroscopically classify all extragalactic transients m peak ≤ 18.5 mag in either g or r filters, and publicly announce said classifications. discoveries are predominantly supernovae (SNe), making this...
The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope is designed to provide an unprecedented optical imaging dataset that will support investigations of our Solar System, Galaxy and Universe, across half the sky over ten years repeated observation. However, exactly how LSST observations be taken (the observing strategy or "cadence") not yet finalized. In this dynamically-evolving community white paper, we explore detailed performance anticipated science expected depend on small changes strategy. Using...