Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

The Time-Domain Spectroscopic Survey: Understanding The Optically Variable Sky With Sequels In Sdss-Iii, John J. Ruan, Scott F. Anderson, Paul J. Green, Eric Morganson, Michael Eracleous, Adam D. Myers, Carles Badenes, Matthew A. Bershady, William N. Brandt, Kenneth C. Chambers, James R. A. Davenport, Kyle S. Dawson, Heather Flewelling, Timothy M. Heckman, Jedidah C. Isler, Nick Kaiser, Jean-Paul Kneib, Chelsea L. Macleod, Isabelle Paris, Nicholas P. Ross, Jessie C. Runnoe, Edward F. Schlafly, Sarah J. Schmidt, Donald P. Schneider, Axel D. Schwope, Yue Shen, Keivan G. Stassum, Paula Szkody, Christoper Z. Waters, Donald G. York

Physics & Astronomy

The Time-Domain Spectroscopic Survey (TDSS) is an SDSS-IV eBOSS subproject primarily aimed at obtaining identification spectra of ~220,000 optically variable objects systematically selected from SDSS/Pan-STARRS1 multi-epoch imaging. We present a preview of the science enabled by TDSS, based on TDSS spectra taken over ~320 deg² of sky as part of the SEQUELS survey in SDSS-III, which is in part a pilot survey for eBOSS in SDSS-IV. Using the 15,746 TDSS-selected single-epoch spectra of photometrically variable objects in SEQUELS, we determine the demographics of our variability-selected sample and investigate the unique spectral characteristics inherent in samples selected by variability. We …