Program: GS-2022B-LP-204

Title:A Spectroscopically Complete Census of Faint Transients Observed by the Young Supernova Experiment
PI:Wynn Jacobson-Galán
Co-I(s): Raffaella Margutti, Giacomo Terreran, Michael Stroh, Adriano Baldeschi, Kate Alexander, Deanne Coppejans, Lindsay DeMarchi, David Matthews, Aprajita Hajela, Ryan Foley, David Jones, Charles Kilpatrick, Georgios Dimitriadis, Cesar Rojas-Bravo, David Coulter, Matt Siebert, Samaporn Tinyanont, Kirsty Taggart, K. Decker French, Katie Auchettl, Alex Gagliano, Gautham Narayan, Jens Hjorth, Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, Maria Drout, Armin Rest, Christa Gall, Yen-Chen Pan, Sandra Raimundo, Radoslaw Wojtak, Charlotte Angus, Luca Izzo

Abstract

New and improved time-domain surveys like the Young Supernova Experiment (YSE) provide an unparalleled opportunity to identify both familiar and rare transients only a few days after explosion. However, the volumetric rate of intrinsically faint (M_peak > -16 mag) transient classes such as LBV/LRN eruptions, low luminosity core-collapse supernovae, and exotic thermonuclear explosions (e.g., Calcium-rich, Type Iax) is not well constrained given the detection limitations of spectroscopic follow-up programs for bright transient surveys. Here we propose a Gemini Large and Long Program (LLP) to obtain spectroscopic observations of faint events in our volume-limited sample of YSE-discovered transients. Compared to other sky surveys, YSE is an unprecedented resource for discovering faint events that are ideally suited for classification with Gemini. We propose to use a total of 300 hrs (50hrs/semester) spread across Gemini North and South to classify and monitor YSE transients at D < 250 Mpc. In combination with our other spectroscopic resources, this LLP will lead to the first spectroscopically complete, volume-limited census of low luminosity transients in the local universe.