Palomar Transient Factory

从造父变星、脉冲星到超新星、爆炸性x射线源和伽玛射线暴，天上的瞬变和爆炸性现象既令人惊讶，也给人以启迪。因此，造父变星表明宇宙比想象的要大得多，超新星揭示了宇宙中元素的积累，脉冲星触及了强引力和密度最大的物质的物理学，伽马射线暴作为年轻宇宙的灯塔。现在，技术创新使得搜索光学天堂的瞬变变得实用和及时，这个项目，帕洛玛瞬变工厂（PTF），优化了对瞬变和变量进行系统和高通量调查的21级水平。PTF计划将在某些已知领域产生有保证的科学成果，如超高能宇宙射线、高能中微子、太电子伏特光子和引力波源。这些源的定位目前非常差，但PTF将能够响应，因为它的大视场，以及测量背景和前景事件的速率。PTF还将探索意想不到的或不确定的瞬变天空，包括比新星更亮但比超新星更暗的假设物体。这种每隔几天对天空进行一次系统的绘制，将揭示大约700颗热核超新星和数百颗核心坍缩超新星，这些超新星的后续工作将需要的不仅仅是这个项目的资源，尽管它们相当可观。宇宙瞬变物体的影响可以通过诸如最远的伽马射线爆发、最明亮的超新星和最快的脉冲星等报道引起的兴奋来表明。该项目将继续为早期职业（学生和博士后）研究人员提供前沿研究的实践经验。计划中的公共档案馆内置了方便访问的功能，这不仅有利于科学界，还能让公众接触到实际的科学，并有助于大学和有才华的高中生的教育。

Transient and explosive phenomena in the heavens have been a cause of astonishment and a source of enlightenment, from Cepheid variables and pulsars to supernovae, explosive X-ray sources and gamma-ray bursts. Thus, Cepheid variables showed that the Universe was much larger than had been imagined, supernovae revealed the buildup of elements in the Universe, pulsars touch on the physics of strong gravity and the densest matter, and gamma-ray bursts serve as beacons to the young Universe. Technological innovations now make it practical and timely to search the optical heavens for transients, and this project, the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF), is optimized for a systematic and very high throughput survey for transients and variables to the 21st magnitude level.The PTF program will yield guaranteed science in certain known areas, such as ultra-high energy cosmic rays, energetic neutrinos, tera-electron-volt photons, and gravitational wave sources. The localization of these sources is currently very poor, but PTF will be able to respond because of its large field of view, as well as measuring the rates of background and foreground events. PTF will also explore the unexpected or ill-defined transient sky, including hypothesized objects brighter than novae but fainter than supernovae. Such systematic charting of the sky every few days will reveal around seven hundred thermonuclear supernovae and several hundred core-collapse supernovae, whose follow-on will require more than just this project's resources, considerable as they are.The impact of cosmic transient objects is indicated by the excitement caused by reports of items like the farthest gamma-ray burst, the most brilliant supernova, and the fastest pulsar. This project will continue to offer early career (student and postdoctoral) researchers hands-on experience with cutting edge research. The planned public archive with built-in easy access will not only benefit the scientific community but also expose the public to science in action, and contribute to the education of college and talented high school students.