We present optical light curves, redshifts, and classifications for 365 spectroscopically confirmed Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) discovered by the Pan-STARRS1 (PS1) Medium Deep Survey. We detail improvements to the PS1 SN photometry, astrometry and calibration that reduce the systematic uncertainties in the PS1 SN Ia distances. We combine the subset of 279 PS1 SN Ia (0.03 < z < 0.68) with useful distance estimates of SN Ia from SDSS, SNLS, various low-z and HST samples to form the largest combined sample of SN Ia consisting of a total of 1048 SN Ia ranging from 0.01 < z < 2.3, which we call the 'Pantheon Sample'. When combining Planck 2015 CMB measurements with the Pantheon SN sample, we find Ω m = 0.307±0.012 and w = −1.026±0.041 for the wCDM model. When the SN and CMB constraints are combined with constraints from BAO and local H 0 measurements, the analysis yields the most precise measurement of dark energy to date: w 0 = −1.007 ± 0.089 and w a = −0.222 ± 0.407 for the w 0 w a CDM model. Tension with a cosmological constant previously seen in an analysis of PS1 and low-z SNe has diminished after an increase of 2× in the statistics of the PS1 sample, improved calibration and photometry, and stricter light-curve quality cuts. We find the systematic uncertainties in our measurements of dark energy are almost as large as the statistical uncertainties, primarily due to limitations of modeling the low-redshift sample. This must be addressed for future progress in using SN Ia to measure dark energy.

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ∼ 1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40 − 8 + 8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 M ⊙ . An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ∼ 40 Mpc ) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One-Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ∼10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ∼ 9 and ∼ 16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC 4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta.

We present cosmological results from a combined analysis of galaxy clustering and weak gravitational lensing, using 1321 deg 2 of griz imaging data from the first year of the Dark Energy Survey (DES Y1). We combine three two-point functions: (i) the cosmic shear correlation function of 26 million source galaxies in four redshift bins, (ii) the galaxy angular autocorrelation function of 650,000 luminous red galaxies in five redshift bins, and (iii) the galaxy-shear cross-correlation of luminous red galaxy positions and source galaxy shears. To demonstrate the robustness of these results, we use independent pairs of galaxy shape, photometric redshift estimation and validation, and likelihood analysis pipelines. To prevent confirmation bias, the bulk of the analysis was carried out while "blind" to the true results; we describe an extensive suite of systematics checks performed and passed during this blinded phase. The data are modeled in flat ΛCDM and wCDM cosmologies, marginalizing over 20 nuisance parameters, varying 6 (for ΛCDM) or 7 (for wCDM) cosmological parameters including the neutrino mass density and including the 457 × 457 element analytic covariance matrix. We find consistent cosmological results from these three two-point functions, and from their combination obtain S8 ≡ σ8(Ωm/0.3) 0.5 = 0.773 +0.026 −0.020 and Ωm = 0.267 +0.030 −0.017 for ΛCDM; for wCDM, we find S8 = 0.782 +0.036 −0.024 , Ωm = 0.284 +0.033 −0.030 , and w = −0.82 +0.

We report observations from the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) of Cepheid variables in the host galaxies of 42 Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) used to calibrate the Hubble constant (H 0). These include the complete sample of all suitable SNe Ia discovered in the last four decades at redshift z ≤ 0.01, collected and calibrated from ≥1000 HST orbits, more than doubling the sample whose size limits the precision of the direct determination of H 0. The Cepheids are calibrated geometrically from Gaia EDR3 parallaxes, masers in NGC 4258 (here tripling that sample of Cepheids), and detached eclipsing binaries in the Large Magellanic Cloud. All Cepheids in these anchors and SN Ia hosts were measured with the same instrument (WFC3) and filters (F555W, F814W, F160W) to negate zero-point errors. We present multiple verifications of Cepheid photometry and six tests of background determinations that show Cepheid measurements are accurate in the presence of crowded backgrounds. The SNe Ia in these hosts calibrate the magnitude–redshift relation from the revised Pantheon+ compilation, accounting here for covariance between all SN data and with host properties and SN surveys matched throughout to negate systematics. We decrease the uncertainty in the local determination of H 0 to 1 km s−1 Mpc−1 including systematics. We present results for a comprehensive set of nearly 70 analysis variants to explore the sensitivity of H 0 to selections of anchors, SN surveys, redshift ranges, the treatment of Cepheid dust, metallicity, form of the period–luminosity relation, SN color, peculiar-velocity corrections, sample bifurcations, and simultaneous measurement of the expansion history. Our baseline result from the Cepheid–SN Ia sample is H 0 = 73.04 ± 1.04 km s−1 Mpc−1, which includes systematic uncertainties and lies near the median of all analysis variants. We demonstrate consistency with measures from HST of the TRGB between SN Ia hosts and NGC 4258, and include them simultaneously to yield 72.53 ± 0.99 km s−1 Mpc−1. The inclusion of high-redshift SNe Ia yields H 0 = 73.30 ± 1.04 km s−1 Mpc−1 and q 0 = −0.51 ± 0.024. We find a 5σ difference with the prediction of H 0 from Planck cosmic microwave background observations under ΛCDM, with no indication that the discrepancy arises from measurement uncertainties or analysis variations considered to date. The source of this now long-standing discrepancy between direct and cosmological routes to determining H 0 remains unknown.

On 17 August 2017, the Advanced LIGO and Virgo detectors observed the gravitational-wave event GW170817-a strong signal from the merger of a binary neutron-star system. Less than two seconds after the merger, a γ-ray burst (GRB 170817A) was detected within a region of the sky consistent with the LIGO-Virgo-derived location of the gravitational-wave source. This sky region was subsequently observed by optical astronomy facilities, resulting in the identification of an optical transient signal within about ten arcseconds of the galaxy NGC 4993. This detection of GW170817 in both gravitational waves and electromagnetic waves represents the first 'multi-messenger' astronomical observation. Such observations enable GW170817 to be used as a 'standard siren' (meaning that the absolute distance to the source can be determined directly from the gravitational-wave measurements) to measure the Hubble constant. This quantity represents the local expansion rate of the Universe, sets the overall scale of the Universe and is of fundamental importance to cosmology. Here we report a measurement of the Hubble constant that combines the distance to the source inferred purely from the gravitational-wave signal with the recession velocity inferred from measurements of the redshift using the electromagnetic data. In contrast to previous measurements, ours does not require the use of a cosmic 'distance ladder': the gravitational-wave analysis can be used to estimate the luminosity distance out to cosmological scales directly, without the use of intermediate astronomical distance measurements. We determine the Hubble constant to be about 70 kilometres per second per megaparsec. This value is consistent with existing measurements, while being completely independent of them. Additional standard siren measurements from future gravitational-wave sources will enable the Hubble constant to be constrained to high precision.

We present UV, optical, and near-infrared (NIR) photometry of the first electromagnetic counterpart to a gravitational wave source from Advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave Observatory (LIGO)/Virgo, the binary neutron star merger GW170817. Our data set extends from the discovery of the optical counterpart at 0.47-18.5 days post-merger, and includes observations with the Dark Energy Camera (DECam), Gemini-South/ FLAMINGOS-2 (GS/F2), and the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). The spectral energy distribution (SED) inferred from this photometry at 0.6 days is well described by a blackbody model with » T 8300 K, a radius of »Ŕ 4.5 10 14 cm (corresponding to an expansion velocity of » v c 0.3 ), and a bolometric luminosity of »Ĺ 5 10 bol 41 erg s −1 . At 1.5 days we find a multi-component SED across the optical and NIR, and subsequently we observe rapid fading in the UV and blue optical bands and significant reddening of the optical/ NIR colors. Modeling the entire data set, we find that models with heating from radioactive decay of 56 Ni, or those with only a single component of opacity from r-process elements, fail to capture the rapid optical decline and red optical/NIR colors. Instead, models with two components consistent with lanthanide-poor and lanthanide-rich ejecta provide a good fit to the data; the resulting "blue" component has » . These ejecta masses are broadly consistent with the estimated r-process production rate required to explain the Milky Way r-process abundances, providing the first evidence that binary neutron star (BNS) mergers can be a dominant site of r-process enrichment.

We present a near-infrared spectral sequence of the electromagnetic counterpart to the binary neutron star merger GW170817 detected by Advanced LIGO/Virgo. Our dataset comprises 7 epochs of J + H spectra taken with FLAMINGOS-2 on Gemini-South between 1.5-10.5 days after the merger. In the initial epoch, the spectrum is dominated by a smooth blue continuum due to a high-velocity, lanthanide-poor blue kilonova component. Starting the following night, all subsequent spectra instead show features that are similar to those predicted in model spectra of material with a high concentration of lanthanides, including spectral peaks near 1.07 and 1.55 µm. Our fiducial model with 0.04 M of ejecta, an ejection velocity of v = 0.1c, and a lanthanide concentration of X lan =10 −2 provides a good match to the spectra taken in the first five days, although it over-predicts the late-time fluxes. We also explore models with multiple fitting components, in each case finding that a significant abundance of lanthanide elements is necessary to match the broad spectral peaks that we observe starting at 2.5 d after the merger. These data provide direct evidence that binary neutron star mergers are significant production sites of even the heaviest r-process elements.

We describe the first public data release of the Dark Energy Survey, DES DR1, consisting of reduced single-epoch images, co-added images, co-added source catalogs, and associated products and services assembled over the first 3 yr of DES science operations. DES DR1 is based on optical/near-infrared imaging from 345 distinct nights (2013 August to 2016 February) by the Dark Energy Camera mounted on the 4 m Blanco telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. We release data from the DES wide-area survey covering ∼5000 deg 2 of the southern Galactic cap in five broad photometric bands, grizY. DES DR1 has a median delivered point-spread function of = g 1.12, r=0.96, i=0.88, z=0.84, and Y=0 90 FWHM, a photometric precision of <1% in all bands, and an astrometric precision of 151 mas. The median co-added catalog depth for a 1 95 diameter aperture at signal-to-noise ratio (S/N)=10 is g=24.33, r=24.08, i=23.44, z=22.69, and Y=21.44 mag. DES DR1 includes nearly 400 million distinct astronomical objects detected in ∼10,000 co-add tiles of size 0.534 deg 2 produced from ∼39,000 individual exposures. Benchmark galaxy and stellar samples contain ∼310 million and ∼80 million objects, respectively, following a basic object quality selection. These data are accessible through a range of interfaces, including query web clients, image cutout servers, jupyter notebooks, and an interactive co-add image visualization tool. DES DR1 constitutes the largest photometric data set to date at the achieved depth and photometric precision.