Related papers: VarIabiLity seLection of AstrophysIcal sources iN …
Context. Lightcurve variability is well-suited for characterising objects in surveys with high cadence and long baseline. This is especially relevant in view of the large datasets to be produced by the Vera C. Rubin Observatory Legacy…
In this work we train three decision-tree based ensemble machine learning algorithms (Random Forest Classifier, Adaptive Boosting and Gradient Boosting Decision Tree respectively) to study quasar selection in the variable source catalog in…
We present a new and simple technique for selecting extensive, complete and pure quasar samples, based on their intrinsic variability. We parametrize the single-band variability by a power-law model for the light-curve structure function,…
The WISE satellite has detected hundreds of millions sources over the entire sky. Classifying them reliably is however a challenging task due to degeneracies in WISE multicolour space and low levels of detection in its two…
We conduct a pilot investigation to determine the optimal combination of color and variability information to identify quasars in current and future multi-epoch optical surveys. We use a Bayesian quasar selection algorithm (Richards et al.…
We develop a method for separating quasars from other variable point sources using SDSS Stripe 82 light curve data for ~10,000 variable objects. To statistically describe quasar variability, we use a damped random walk model parametrized by…
We present a study of variable faint optical sources discovered by comparing the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) and the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS) catalogs. We use SDSS measurements to photometrically recalibrate several…
The search for fast optical transients, such as the expected electromagnetic counterparts to binary neutron star mergers, is riddled with false positives ranging from asteroids to stellar flares. While moving objects are readily rejected…
Robust fast methods to classify variable light curves in large sky surveys are becoming increasingly important. While it is relatively straightforward to identify common periodic stars and particular transient events (supernovae, novae,…
We present a catalog of 100,563 unresolved, UV-excess (UVX) quasar candidates to g=21 from 2099 deg^2 of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release One (DR1) imaging data. Existing spectra of 22,737 sources reveals that 22,191 (97.6%)…
The rate of image acquisition in modern synoptic imaging surveys has already begun to outpace the feasibility of keeping astronomers in the real-time discovery and classification loop. Here we present the inner workings of a framework,…
We quantify the variability of faint unresolved optical sources using a catalog based on multiple SDSS imaging observations. The catalog covers SDSS Stripe 82, and contains 58 million photometric observations in the SDSS ugriz system for…
We construct a photometrically calibrated catalog of non-variable sources from the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) observations. The first version of this catalog presented here, the PTF photometric catalog 1.0, contains calibrated…
In the era of large photometric surveys, the importance of automated and accurate classification is rapidly increasing. Specifically, the separation of resolved and unresolved sources in astronomical imaging is a critical initial step for a…
We used 3.1 million spectroscopically labelled sources from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) to train an optimised random forest classifier using photometry from the SDSS and the Widefield Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE). We applied this…
The classification of variable objects provides insight into a wide variety of astrophysics ranging from stellar interiors to galactic nuclei. The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) provides time series observations that record the variability…
We present the first results of our dedicated programme of automatised classification of galaxies, stars and quasars in the mid-infrared all-sky data from the WISE survey. We employ the Support Vector Machines (SVM) algorithm, which defines…
The identification and analysis of different variable sources is a hot issue in astrophysical research. The Large Sky Area Multi-Object Fiber Spectroscopic Telescope (LAMOST) spectroscopic survey has accumulated massive spectral data but…
We report the first results of a study of variable point sources identified using multi-color time-series photometry from Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Stripe 82 over a span of nearly 10 years (1998-2007). We construct a light-curve…
Aims. Construction of a new quasar candidate catalog from the Red-Sequence Cluster Survey 2 (RCS-2), identified solely from photometric information using an automated algorithm suitable for large surveys. The algorithm performance is tested…