Detecting Rare Events in the Time-Domain. Classification and Discovery in Large Astronomical Surveys Ringberg Castle, Germany October 14, 2008 through October 17, 2008.

摘要

One of the biggest challenges in current and future time-domain surveys is to extract the objects of interest from the immense data stream. There are two aspects to achieving this goal: detecting variable sources and classifying them. Difference imaging provides an elegant technique for identifying new transients or changes in source brightness. Much progress has been made in recent years toward refining the process. We discuss a selection of pitfalls that can afflict an automated difference imagine pipeline and describe some solutions. After identifying true astrophysical variables, we are faced with the challenge of classifying them. For rare events, such as supernovae and microlensing, this challenge is magnified because we must balance having selection criteria that select for the largest number of objects of interest against a high contamination rate.We discuss considerations and techniques for developing classification shemes.