The ZTF Bright Transient Survey

The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) Bright Transient Survey is by far the largest spectroscopic supernova survey ever conducted. Since June of 2018 we have been surveying the entire nighttime Northern sky every 2-3 nights in two filters and acquiring spectra of (almost) every time-varying, nonmoving object brighter than 18.5 mag that is not a Galactic source or an AGN, providing a complete and unbiased view of the dynamic optical sky. Transients down to 19.0 mag are also targeted when possible (given available spectroscopic resources). Between 2017 and 2020 we catalogued almost 4000 supernovae. Between 2021 and 2024 we expect to increase this total to almost 10000, including hundreds of "exotic" transients: tidal disruption events, superluminous supernovae, and the like. So far we have detected 8850 spectroscopically-confirmed transients (8732 supernovae and 118 transients of other types). The large majority of these classifications were provided by our programs. Alert data (including preliminary photometry) is released in real time via ZTF Alert Brokers (1,2,3,4) and spectra and classifications are announced nightly via TNS. Cumulative properties of the sample are compiled here and in our papers. Some properties of the current sample can be explored in detail using the BTS Sample Explorer.

Sample Summary

The statistics below (by class and limiting peak magnitude) are updated daily: numbers in each cell provide the total of publicly-available TNS classifications of each type. Classifications come mostly from our own programs, but also use reports from other groups via TNS. Not all classifications are final and statistics do not include transients with non-public classifications. The table on the right includes every ZTF Northern Sky Survey transient above 19.0 magnitude; the table on the left is specific to events passing a variety of cuts to establish a high-quality statistical sample: see below for details. Plots show a skymap of all confirmed extragalactic transients, and a preliminary luminosity-duration plot for sample transients.

SN-like events passing sample cuts: mag ≤ 19.0 18.5 18.0 17.5 17.0 All typed 5372 3568 1822 982 487 All SNe 5313 3519 1790 960 472 Ia 4007 2655 1339 722 357 Ia-CSM 8 7 4 3 3 Iax 11 7 4 4 2 Ib/c 305 203 105 51 25 Ibn 24 18 13 5 1 Ic-BL 50 39 19 10 6 SLSN-I 42 21 10 7 1 II 959 640 336 180 89 IIb 75 47 25 14 7 IIn 139 98 51 26 14 SLSN-II 21 11 6 2 1 TDE 20 14 7 4 4 Gap 9 8 5 4 2 Ca-rich 1 0 0 0 0 LRN 3 3 1 1 0 ILRT 2 2 2 2 1 LBV 3 3 2 1 1 Novae 28 25 19 13 8 Other 2 2 1 1 1

All events: mag ≤ 19.0 18.5 18.0 17.5 17.0 All typed 8850 6081 3237 1770 904 All SNe 8732 5986 3175 1731 882 Ia 6404 4412 2328 1275 663 Ia-CSM 19 14 8 5 5 Iax 19 15 10 8 5 Ib/c 461 327 184 90 43 Ibn 31 25 17 8 3 Ic-BL 66 53 28 14 8 SLSN-I 70 37 19 12 2 II 1797 1210 644 354 174 IIb 116 75 46 26 14 IIn 242 169 89 47 21 SLSN-II 39 22 8 2 1 TDE 50 36 19 9 5 Gap 19 16 9 5 3 Ca-rich 5 3 0 0 0 LRN 4 4 2 1 0 ILRT 4 3 3 2 1 LBV 6 6 4 2 2 Novae 47 41 33 24 13 Other 2 2 1 1 1

Latest Transients

The following list shows the most recent candidates saved to the program. No light curve or host-galaxy filtering has been applied, so this may include some false positives such as cataclysmic variables or AGNs.

Supernova Candidates Needing Classification

The following list shows older SN candidates still needing classification, and may be useful to observers with classification programs in need of targets (the most recent ZTF magnitude is provided below). A looser version of the sample cuts has been applied to this list to remove some false positives and poorly-observed SNe. Because the whole light curve is not available yet there may still be a few false positives in this list.

Completeness

Our goal is to be close to 100% spectroscopically complete for all genuine extragalactic transients brighter than 18.5 magnitude that are detected in more than one imaging epoch in the survey footprint, for which the epoch of maximum light is clearly observed, and which do not set within about a month after maximum light. (Transients that do not meet these cuts are also observed when possible.) Our actual completeness for events meeting all these criteria is about 95%. (The remaining 5% are mostly concentrated in periods of bad weather that affected our spectroscopic follow-up programs.)

The table at left below presents classification success statistics (by limiting magnitude) for events meeting these criteria (at left) and exhibiting "SN-like behavior" (slow rise and/or fade time, or coincident with a galaxy). The month and peak magnitude are as observed (in either filter). These totals do include unreleased classifications, so they are slightly higher than the totals given in the type-specific table above. The table at right includes all events, including those with poor visibility which could not be classified (many of these are stars).

A visualization of this is also given in the figure at right: large points indicate classification successes (green circle) or failures (red X) for sample transients; small dots show other potential transients that fail our cuts.

BTS Papers

• Paper I: Spectroscopic Classification and the Redshift Completeness of Local Galaxy Catalogs (Fremling et al. 2020, ApJ 895:32)
• Paper II: A Public Statistical Sample for Exploring Supernova Demographics (Perley et al. 2020, ApJ 904:35 )

Team Members and Current Contributors