# Presto-Color: A Photometric Survey Cadence for Explosive Physics & Fast Transients

## TL;DR

Presto-Color proposes a minimal, rapid-cadence photometric survey strategy using two filters within hours to detect and characterize fast and explosive astronomical transients, enhancing discovery potential for rare transient phenomena.

## Contribution

It introduces a novel observing cadence optimized for fast transient detection, enabling simultaneous color and light curve measurements within a single night.

## Key findings

- Effective detection of fast transients like kilonovae and rapidly declining supernovae.
- Enhanced ability to identify transient features through rapid multi-filter observations.
- Potential for large surveys like LSST to significantly improve understanding of rare explosive phenomena.

## Abstract

We identify minimal observing cadence requirements that enable photometric astronomical surveys to detect and recognize fast and explosive transients and fast transient features. Observations in two different filters within a short time window (e.g., g-and-i, or r-and-z, within < 0.5 hr) and a repeat of one of those filters with a longer time window (e.g., > 1.5 hr) are desirable for this purpose. Such an observing strategy delivers both the color and light curve evolution of transients on the same night. This allows the identification and initial characterization of fast transient -- or fast features of longer timescale transients -- such as rapidly declining supernovae, kilonovae, and the signatures of SN ejecta interacting with binary companion stars or circumstellar material. Some of these extragalactic transients are intrinsically rare and generally all hard to find, thus upcoming surveys like the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) could dramatically improve our understanding of their origin and properties. We colloquially refer to such a strategy implementation for the LSST as the Presto-Color strategy (rapid-color). This cadence's minimal requirements allow for overall optimization of a survey for other science goals.