The LIGO HET Response (LIGHETR) Project to Discover and Spectroscopically Follow Optical Transients Associated with Neutron Star Mergers

The LIGO HET Response (LIGHETR) project is an enterprise to follow up optical transients (OT) discovered as gravitational wave merger sources by the LIGO/Virgo collaboration (LVC). Early spectroscopy has the potential to constrain crucial parameters such as the aspect angle. The LIGHETR collaboration also includes the capacity to model the spectroscopic evolution of mergers to facilitate a real-time direct comparison of models with our data. The principal facility is the Hobby-Eberly Telescope. LIGHETR uses the massively-replicated VIRUS array of spectrographs to search for associated OTs and obtain early blue spectra and in a complementary role, the low-resolution LRS-2 spectrograph is used to obtain spectra of viable candidates as well as a densely-sampled series of spectra of true counterparts. Once an OT is identified, the anticipated cadence of spectra would match or considerably exceed anything achieved for GW170817 = AT2017gfo for which there were no spectra in the first 12 hours and thereafter only roughly once daily. We describe special HET-specific software written to facilitate the program and attempts to determine the flux limits to undetected sources. We also describe our campaign to follow up OT candidates during the third observational campaign of the LIGO and Virgo Scientific Collaborations. We obtained VIRUS spectroscopy of candidate galaxy hosts for 5 LVC gravitational wave events and LRS-2 spectra of one candidate for the OT associated with S190901ap. We identified that candidate, ZTF19abvionh = AT2019pip, as a possible Wolf-Rayet star in an otherwise unrecognized nearby dwarf galaxy.Comment: 26 pages, 15 figure

SN 2021hpr and its two siblings in the Cepheid calibrator galaxy NGC 3147: A hierarchical BayeSN analysis of a Type Ia supernova trio, and a Hubble constant constraint

To improve Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) standardisability, the consistency of distance estimates to siblings -- SNe in the same host galaxy -- should be investigated. We present Young Supernova Experiment Pan-STARRS-1 $grizy$ photometry of SN 2021hpr, the third spectroscopically confirmed SN Ia in the high-stellar-mass Cepheid-calibrator galaxy NGC 3147. We analyse NGC 3147's trio of SN Ia siblings: SNe 1997bq, 2008fv and 2021hpr, using a new version of the BayeSN model of SN Ia spectral-energy distributions, retrained simultaneously using optical-NIR $BgVrizYJH$ (0.35--1.8 $\mu$m) data. The distance estimates to each sibling are consistent, with a sample standard deviation $\lesssim$0.01 mag, much smaller than the total intrinsic scatter in the training sample: $\sigma_0\approx0.09$ mag. Fitting normal SN Ia siblings in three additional galaxies, we estimate a $\approx$90% probability that the siblings' intrinsic scatter is smaller than $\sigma_0$. We build a new hierarchical model that fits light curves of siblings in a single galaxy simultaneously; this yields more precise estimates of the common distance and the dust parameters. Fitting the trio for a common dust law shape yields $R_V=2.69\pm0.52$. Our work motivates future hierarchical modelling of more siblings, to tightly constrain their intrinsic scatter, and better understand SN-host correlations. Finally, we estimate the Hubble constant, using a Cepheid distance to NGC 3147, the siblings trio, and 109 Hubble flow ($0.01 < z_{\rm{CMB}} < 0.08$) SNe Ia; marginalising over the siblings' and population's intrinsic scatters, and the peculiar velocity dispersion, yields $H_0=77.9\pm6.5 \text{ km s}^{-1}\text{Mpc}^{-1}$.Comment: Submitted to MNRAS; 30 pages, 22 figure

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals &lt;1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Relative Intrinsic Scatter in Hierarchical Type Ia Supernova Sibling Analyses: Application to SNe 2021hpr, 1997bq, and 2008fv in NGC 3147

Abstract We present Young Supernova Experiment grizy photometry of SN 2021hpr, the third Type Ia supernova sibling to explode in the Cepheid calibrator galaxy, NGC 3147. Siblings are useful for improving SN-host distance estimates and investigating their contributions toward the SN Ia intrinsic scatter (post-standardization residual scatter in distance estimates). We thus develop a principled Bayesian framework for analyzing SN Ia siblings. At its core is the cosmology-independent relative intrinsic scatter parameter, σ Rel: the dispersion of siblings distance estimates relative to one another within a galaxy. It quantifies the contribution toward the total intrinsic scatter, σ 0, from within-galaxy variations about the siblings’ common properties. It also affects the combined distance uncertainty. We present analytic formulae for computing a σ Rel posterior from individual siblings distances (estimated using any SN model). Applying a newly trained BayeSN model, we fit the light curves of each sibling in NGC 3147 individually, to yield consistent distance estimates. However, the wide σ Rel posterior means σ Rel ≈ σ 0 is not ruled out. We thus combine the distances by marginalizing over σ Rel with an informative prior: σ Rel ∼ U(0, σ 0). Simultaneously fitting the trio’s light curves improves constraints on distance and each sibling’s individual dust parameters, compared to individual fits. Higher correlation also tightens dust parameter constraints. Therefore, σ Rel marginalization yields robust estimates of siblings distances for cosmology, as well as dust parameters for sibling–host correlation studies. Incorporating NGC 3147's Cepheid distance yields H 0 = 78.4 ± 6.5 km s−1 Mpc−1. Our work motivates analyses of homogeneous siblings samples, to constrain σ Rel and its SN-model dependence.</jats:p

The Young Supernova Experiment Data Release 1 (YSE DR1) Light Curves

This is the official Zenodo data release of the Young Supernova Experiment Public Data Release 1 (YSE DR1) light curves associated with the paper, &quot;The Young Supernova Experiment Data Release 1 (YSE DR1): Light Curves and Photometric Classification of 1975 Supernovae&quot;. YSE DR1 is comprised of processed multi-color Pan-STARRS1 (PS1)-griz and Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF)-gr photometry lightcurve files in the SNANA data format of 1975 transients with host galaxy associations, redshifts, spectroscopic/photometric classifications, and additional data products from November 24th, 2019 to December 20, 2021. See Aleo et al. (2022) for details. &quot;yse_dr1_zenodo.tar.gz&quot; -- All lightcurve data with no cut on signal to noise (S/N). &quot;yse_dr1_zenodo_snr_geq_4.tar.gz&quot; -- All lightcurve data with S/N &amp;gt;= 4. This can be used to recreate the analysis in Aleo et al. (2022). &quot;parsnip_results_for_ysedr1_table_A1_full_for_online&quot; -- The full version of Table~C2 in Aleo et al. (2022). The full ParSNIP (tertiary classification) results for YSE DR1. NOTE: An example tutorial on how to download the YSE DR1 data (full sample, spec sample, phot sample), grab metadata, and recreate a plot from the paper can be found on Github.</span