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Steward Observatory Novel Astrophysical Transient Alliance

About Us

We are the Steward Observatory Novel Astrophysical Transient Alliance, or the time domain science group at the University of Arizona Steward Observatory. There are students, faculty, and postdocs studying transients on a wide range of the electromagnetic spectrum. Steward Observatory is a fantastic place to study transient science because of its access to observatories. We also have a weekly group meeting (called Big Boom!), a wonderful culture, and numerous faculty excited to work with students!

For Graduate Student and Postdoc positions see the Join Us Page

Recent Projects


A JWST/MIRI Study of Dust in a Sample of Normal Type IIP Core Collapse Supernovae

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Bhagya M. Subrayan, David J. Sand, Olivia Culbert, Jennifer E. Andrews, Jeniveve Pearson, Griffin Hosseinzadeh, Saurabh W. Jha, Stefano Valenti, K. Azalee Bostroem, Conor L. Ransome, Aravind P. Ravi, Aysha Aamer, Moira Andrews, Emma R. Beasor, Collin Christy, Yize Dong, Noah Franz, Emily Hoang, Brian Hsu, Jacob Jencson, Lindsey A. Kwok, M. J. Lundquist, Darshana Mehta, Nicolas Meza Retamal, Manisha Shrestha, Nathan Smith, Sergiy Vasylyev

Abstract

Core collapse supernovae (CCSNe) are invoked as major dust producers in the early Universe, yet the amount of dust they form, the timescale over which it grows, and the physical conditions that regulate the yield remain uncertain. We present a detailed JWST/MIRI mid-infrared (MIR) imaging census of 11 nearby Type IIP CCSNe spanning $\sim$1-7 yr after explosion, investigating dust emission across the different phases of their evolution. The spectral energy distributions show a coherent evolution from hot ($\sim$1500 K), 5-8 $μ$m emission at $\sim$400 d to prominent 10 and 18 $μ$m emission features at later epochs ($\sim$600-2500 d). The cool dust temperatures range from $\sim120$ to $250$ K and dust masses from $\sim10^{-4}$ to $10^{-2} M_{\odot}$. The current sample shows no statistically significant correlation between measured dust mass and peak luminosity, plateau duration, or explosion energy. SNe with early high ionization features, indicative of confined CSM, are often among the dust-rich objects in the sample. The measured 1-7 yr dust yields are insufficient to account for dust in typical $z > 6$ galaxies, but support a role for CCSNe as producers of seed dust for subsequent grain growth.


No Evidence for Nearby Circumstellar Material in the Type Ia Supernova 2025rbs

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Aravind P. Ravi, Griffin Hosseinzadeh, Stefano Valenti, Saurabh W. Jha, Jennifer Andrews, David J. Sand, Benjamin J. Fulton, William D. Vacca, Melissa L. Graham, Alexei V. Filippenko, Noah Franz, Jeniveve Pearson, Moira Andrews, K. Azalee Bostroem, Collin Christy, Yize Dong, Sebastian Gomez, Daichi Hiramatsu, Emily Hoang, D. Andrew Howell, Brian Hsu, Daryl Janzen, Lindsey A. Kwok, Michael J. Lundquist, Darshana Mehta, Nicolas Meza-Retamal, Curtis McCully, Manisha Shrestha, Bhagya Subrayan, Lauren Weiss, Weikang Zheng

Abstract

We present a high-resolution spectral time series of the Type Ia supernova (SN) 2025rbs discovered in the nearby galaxy NGC 7331. The Automated Planet Finder (APF) at Lick Observatory and the MAROON-X/IGRINS-2 at Gemini North were used to obtain echelle spectra between -5 and 15 days with respect to the epoch of maximum light. Several unsaturated NaID absorption components along the line of sight are identified, but there is no evidence of time variance in any of them. We measure the equivalent width of the observed diffuse interstellar band around 5780 A and constrain the extinction along the line of sight to SN 2025rbs as $A_V = 0.64\,\pm\,0.32$ mag, corresponding to a moderate reddening of $E(B-V) = 0.21\,\pm\,0.10$ mag (assuming $R_\mathrm{V}$ = 3.1). The observed Ca II H & K interstellar absorption roughly traces NaID in velocity space, suggesting a common origin. Quantitative comparisons between the column densities of Na and Ca gas in these host clouds ($N_{NaID}$ / $N_{Ca II}$ of order unity) argue against their origin in the Galactic halo gas and instead support absorption due to the interstellar gas of NGC 7331. Time invariance of all the observed absorption features suggests a lack of nearby circumstellar material ($\lesssim$ 10$^{16}$ cm) around the progenitor system of SN 2025rbs. This supports a progenitor scenario for SN 2025rbs with minimal ambient circumstellar gas, consistent with a double-degenerate CO white dwarf binary system.


On Bimodality in the Eccentricity Distribution of Galactic Double Neutron Stars

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Aldana Grichener, Paul Disberg, Ryosuke Hirai, Ilya Mandel

Abstract

The detection of Galactic double neutron stars (DNSs) through pulsar timing offers a unique opportunity to probe massive stellar and binary evolution. The observed DNS population exhibits an apparently bimodal eccentricity distribution, with an absence of systems at measured intermediate eccentricities, $0.4 \lesssim e_{\rm m} \lesssim 0.58$, whose origin remains unclear. We propose that this possible gap can arise naturally if the relationship between the progenitor masses and neutron star (NS) masses is non-monotonic, provided that the second-born NS receives a sufficiently small natal kick. We illustrate this scenario using the population synthesis code COMPAS, and find that our DNS population model can reproduce the observed orbital period-eccentricity distribution relatively well, including the apparent bimodality. Although a larger observed sample is required to draw more robust conclusions, our results suggest that this model provides a natural pathway for explaining current observations of Galactic DNSs through isolated binary evolution.


Revealing the Structure and Magnetization of GRB Jets with ALMA Polarization Observations

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Tanmoy Laskar, Collin T. Christy, Noah Franz, Gavin Farley, Kate D. Alexander, Jonathan Granot, Ramandeep Gill, Tarraneh Eftekhari, Shiho Kobayashi, Hendrik van Eerten, Raffaella Margutti, Edo Berger

Abstract

We present a systematic study of the currently available ALMA millimeter polarimetric sample of gamma-ray burst (GRB) afterglows. Our sample comprises 24 observations (20 new) of 11 long-duration GRBs spanning $\approx0.1$-87 days after the burst. We detect significant linear polarization in 8 observations across 6 events, with polarization degrees ranging from $Π_L\approx0.6\%$ to $2.4\%$. For the remaining observations, we place deep upper limits (median $Π_L\lesssim1\%$). Multi-epoch observations reveal diverse polarization evolution. GRB 190114C yields the best-sampled $Π_L$ for a radio afterglow to date, with early evolution favoring patchy magnetic fields in the reverse shock (RS) and later polarization broadly consistent with forward-shock (FS) models. GRB 220921A exhibits a rapid rise in polarization from $Π_L\lesssim0.4\%$ to $2.4\%$ over 1.9-6.8 days, inconsistent with toroidal RS magnetic-field models but broadly consistent with several FS random-field models. GRB 221009A yields the highest-significance polarization detections in the sample ($Π_L\approx1.4$-$1.6\%$), yet neither existing FS nor RS polarization models reproduce both the observed polarization evolution and the viewing geometry inferred from broadband afterglow modeling, with the exception of patchy fields in the RS. Deep upper limits for GRB 171205A rule out RS toroidal-field models for the published off-axis geometry, while a strong, single-epoch detection of GRB 190829A, if RS-dominated, requires a nearly on-axis geometry for toroidal-field configurations. Interpreting the observations within a patchy-field framework implies magnetic-field coherence scales of order $θ_B\sim10^{-3}$-$10^{-2}$ rad. These observations demonstrate the diagnostic power of radio/mm polarimetry for probing the magnetic-field structure, emission region, and viewing geometry of relativistic GRB jets.


Ultraviolet to Infrared Spectroscopy of the Type Ibn SN 2023tsz Suggests a Lower-mass Progenitor

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Sergiy S. Vasylyev, Griffin Hosseinzadeh, Luc Dessart, Ori Fox, David J. Sand, Alexei V. Filippenko, Qinan Wang, D. Andrew Howell, Jennifer E. Andrews, Moira Andrews, Pallas Beddow, K. Azalee Bostroem, Thomas G. Brink, Peter J. Brown, Asia deGraw, Yize Dong, Joseph Farah, Thomas R. Geballe, Sebastian Gomez, Emily T. Hoang, Brian Hsu, Saurabh W. Jha, Patrick Kelly, Curtis McCully, Darshana Mehta, Megan Newsome, Yuan Q. Ni, Seong Hyun Park, Jeniveve Pearson, Neil Pichay, Justin Pierel, Aravind P. Ravi, Nicolas E. Meza Retamal, Melissa Shahbandeh, Manisha Shrestha, Nathan Smith, Bhagya M. Subrayan, Tamás Szalai, Stefano Valenti, Schuyler D. Van Dyk, Jeonghee Rho, Kathryn Wynn, Yi Yang, Yossef Zenati, WeiKang Zheng

Abstract

Type Ibn supernovae are stripped-envelope explosions whose spectra indicate interaction with dense, helium-rich and hydrogen-poor circumstellar material (CSM), making them important probes of late-stage mass loss and progenitor stripping. We present extensive ultraviolet-to-near-infrared spectrophotometry of the Type Ibn SN 2023tsz, including two epochs of HST/STIS ultraviolet (UV) spectroscopy and ground-based optical and near-infrared follow-up observations. The spectra are dominated by intermediate-width emission lines at all phases after maximum light, suggesting that much of the luminosity originates in a cold dense shell (CDS) formed by interaction between the ejecta and CSM. We compare the observations to one-dimensional non-local-thermodynamic-equilibrium radiative-transfer models of a helium-star explosion with a mass of $4 M_{\odot}$ at the onset of helium burning. The models reproduce the strong optical and near-infrared He I lines and require an added X-ray irradiation field to match the highly ionized UV features. The spectra are best reproduced by models with an X-ray irradiation power of $L_X \approx 10^8 L_{\odot}$, with the preferred models favoring CDS radii of order $(1.5$--$2) \times 10^{15}$ cm, velocities of $\sim 5 \times 10^7$ cm s$^{-1}$, and interaction powers of a few times $10^{42}$ erg s$^{-1}$. In the optical, the preferred models shift from higher interaction power and smaller radii at early times to lower power and larger radii at later times. These results add to the growing evidence that at least some SNe Ibn arise from lower-mass helium stars whose final evolution is shaped by binary interaction.


The JADES Transient Survey III: Linking Core-Collapse Supernova Rates to Cosmic Star Formation

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Christian Vassallo, Seppo Mattila, Christa DeCoursey, Louis-Gregory Strolger, Erkki Kankare, Max M. Briel, Eiichi Egami, Iikka Mäntynen, David A. Coulter, Armin Rest, Andrew J. Bunker, Alex J. Cameron, Daniel J. Eisenstein, Ori D. Fox, Kevin Hainline, Ryan Hausen, Zhiyuan Ji, Benjamin D. Johnson, Roberto Maiolino, Takashi J. Moriya, Justin D. R. Pierel, Thomas M. Reynolds, Brant Robertson, Fengwu Sun, Sandro Tacchella, Christina C. Williams, Christopher N. A. Willmer

Abstract

We investigate how core-collapse supernova (CCSN) rates trace the star-formation rate densities (SFRDs) over the redshift range $0 \le z \le 5$. For this we use new high-redshift results from the James Webb Space Telescope Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES) Transient Survey (JTS, see the companion paper by DeCoursey et al. 2026), together with published CCSN rates. Using the observed CCSN rates to constrain the CCSN production efficiency relating SFRDs to CCSN rates, we examine how the inferred connection between star formation rates and CCSN production efficiency depends on the stellar initial mass function (IMF) and the adopted CCSN progenitor mass range. We find that the observed CCSN rates are consistent with dust extinction-corrected UV+IR based SFRDs for plausible CCSN progenitor masses. Using the observed CCSN rates to directly reconstruct the cosmic star-formation history, we recover a peak at z $\sim2$, in agreement with galaxy luminosity-based determinations. Allowing the IMF to evolve with redshift has only a modest impact when SFRD estimates are treated consistently, indicating that CCSN rates are not as sensitive to the change of IMF as might be assumed. Adopting higher SFRDs that include a dust-obscured population of faint millimeter sources implies a substantial and increasing fraction of missing, dust-obscured CCSNe at higher redshifts. Although the inferred fraction of CCSNe missed by the surveys depends on the adopted CCSN production efficiency, we find an increasing fraction of supernovae missed due to obscuration, rising from modest values at low redshift to a peak at z $\sim2$, and remaining substantial toward z $\sim5$.


The JADES Transient Survey II: Volumetric Supernova Rates out to z~5

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Christa DeCoursey, Christian Vassallo, Louis-Gregory Strolger, Justin D. R. Pierel, Eiichi Egami, Seppo Mattila, Armin Rest, David A. Coulter, Andrew J. Bunker, Alex J. Cameron, James M. DerKacy, Daniel J. Eisenstein, Michael Engesser, Ori D. Fox, Sebastian Gomez, Massimo Griggio, Kevin Hainline, Ryan Hausen, Zhiyuan Ji, Benjamin D. Johnson, Roberto Maiolino, Takashi J. Moriya, Brant Robertson, Koji Shukawa, Matthew R. Siebert, Fengwu Sun, Sandro Tacchella, Christina C. Williams, Christopher N. A. Willmer, Yossef Zenati

Abstract

The JADES Transient Survey (JTS) identified 83 supernova (SN) candidates in the JADES Deep Field, a $\sim$25 arcmin$^2$ region with deep ($\sim$30 mag) multi-band, multi-epoch JWST/NIRCam coverage. We use this sample to derive the first volumetric core-collapse (CC) SN and Type Ia (SN Ia) rates in the $z$$\sim$2-5 range. Many of these SNe are photometrically classified from single-epoch photometry (i.e., single spectral energy distributions (SEDs)), so we simulate and classify $\sim$23,000 CC SN and SN Ia mock SEDs over 0.7$\leq$$z$$\leq$5 to quantify single-SED classification accuracy as a function of redshift. We report consistent rates for two samples: (1) the full JTS sample, including single-SED classifications, and (2) the "gold" sample, restricted to sources classified spectroscopically or with multi-epoch light curves. In units of 10$^{-4}$ CC SNe yr$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-3}$, the full sample CC SN rates are 6.2$^{+2.2}_{-1.7}$ at 2.06$\leq$$z$$<$2.78 and 4.1$^{+1.5}_{-1.1}$ at 2.78$\leq$$z$$\leq$5.06, broadly consistent with the expectations from the galaxy luminosity-based measurements of the cosmic star formation rate density. Our full sample rates tentatively exhibit the predicted decline beyond cosmic noon, providing the first direct observational indication of this behavior. A companion paper, C. Vassallo et al., presents a more detailed comparison. We measure a full sample SN Ia rate of 0.3$^{+0.3}_{-0.2}$$\times$10$^{-4}$ SNe Ia yr$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-3}$ at 1.92$\leq$$z$$<$3.60. Future high-$z$ SN surveys with JWST and the Roman Space Telescope will expand these samples and provide more robust constraints on SN rates in the high-$z$ Universe.


The Radio Properties of Extreme Coronal Line Emitters: Constraints on the Sub-parsec Environment

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Noah Franz, Kate D. Alexander, Collin T. Christy, Tanmoy Laskar, Stefanie Komossa, Enrico Ramirez-Ruiz, Jean Somalwar, Edo Berger, Ryan Chornock, Fabio De Colle, Gavin Farley, Megan Newsome, B. Ashley VanderLey

Abstract

A tiny fraction ($\ll1\%$) of galaxies display luminous, high-ionization metal emission lines, which may be persistent or variable. These extreme coronal lines (ECLs) are produced when soft X-ray photons intercept dense gas ($n\gtrsim10^{6-7}~{\rm cm^{-3}}$). The high X-ray flux required implicates intense nuclear activity, likely originating from tidal disruption events (TDEs) and active galactic nuclei (AGN). As ECLs are rarely seen even within these classes, their production may also require specific environmental conditions, but the details remain unclear (e.g., the geometry and volume filling factor of the ECL-producing gas). Here, we present the radio properties of a population of $27$ low-redshift ($z<0.3$) ECL emitting galaxies (ECLEs), providing a unique and previously unexplored probe of the properties of the circumnuclear medium (CNM; $\lesssim1$ pc from the black hole) in these systems. We find that $\sim 50\%$ of ECLEs produce radio synchrotron emission with luminosity and evolution consistent with TDEs and/or AGN. Radio spectral modeling of four ECLEs reveals that the ECL-producing region is (1) clumpy with a low volume filling factor ($10^{-5}\lesssim f_{V}\lesssim10^{-2}$) and (2) likely distinct from the radio emitting region (implying, e.g., a clumpy toroidal geometry). For time-variable ECLEs, these are some of the first observational constraints on the CNM geometry in formerly quiescent galactic nuclei. The unique nature of ECLEs makes them an excellent high-energy laboratory to connect the physics of accretion, photoionization, and feedback in galactic nuclei, thus motivating continued multi-wavelength monitoring.


Radio Observations of the Unusual Tidal Disruption Event AT 2022wtn: a Fast and Highly Energetic Outflow

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Gavin Farley, Tanmoy Laskar, Noah Franz, Collin T. Christy, Coleman Rohde, A. J. Goodwin, Kate D. Alexander, Edo Berger, Yvette Cendes, Ryan Chornock, Tarraneh Eftekhari, Walter W. Golay, Wenbin Lu, Raffaella Margutti

Abstract

We present multi-epoch, multi-frequency radio observations of the tidal disruption event (TDE) AT 2022wtn, obtained with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) and Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope (GMRT), spanning 97-866 days after optical detection. The peak radio flux density increases until 300 days post optical discovery, flattens out for several hundred days, then begins to decrease at 534 days. Utilizing an updated equipartition analysis framework, we estimate several physical parameters of the event and the surrounding medium. We model AT 2022wtn with two different geometries: a spherical and a conical emitting region. The spherical outflow model gives an expansion velocity of $v\approx0.21c$ and a kinetic energy of $\sim3.8\times10^{49}$ erg, and the conical outflow model yields a higher energy ($\sim1.8\times10^{50}$) and velocity ($v\approx0.41c$) than the spherical case. After ruling out the possibility of a relativistic jet, we consider several potential origins for sub-relativistic outflow regions in TDEs including unbound debris streams, collisionally-induced outflows, an accretion-driven wind, and an outflow from an accretion disk state transition, and find only an accretion disk state transition outflow to be consistent with the high energy and velocity found in our equipartition results. AT 2022wtn is a uniquely powerful non-relativistic radio-emitting TDE, and joins a growing population that display a diverse range of outflow properties.


A Self-Consistent Framework for Synchrotron Equipartition Analysis

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Coleman Rohde, Tanmoy Laskar, Noah Franz, Gavin Farley, Collin Christy, Kate D. Alexander

Abstract

Determining the energy, size, and velocity of synchrotron-emitting outflows is essential for testing models of their formation and evolution, but these quantities are often poorly constrained by observations alone. Equipartition analysis, therefore, provides a widely used framework for estimating these properties. Prior works have developed refinements to account for additional physical effects and other sources of energy (e.g., self-absorption, hot protons, and deviations from strict equipartition); however, these corrections are typically applied independently of one another, resulting in internal inconsistencies. In this work, we derive a self-consistent equipartition framework that accounts for the interdependence of various correction factors for Newtonian outflows and on- and off-axis relativistic jets. We implement our framework in an easy-to-use, publicly available code and apply it to study the tidal disruption events ASASSN-19bt and AT2019dsg, fast X-ray transient EP240414a, and active galactic nucleus J0231-0433. The interdependence of the corrections can increase energy estimates by a factor of ~5, suggesting that the energies of other synchrotron sources may be similarly underestimated in the literature. These results indicate that simultaneously incorporating these correction factors is essential for determining accurate outflow properties and constraining launch mechanisms.


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