RVS Spectra of Gaia Photometric Science Alerts

TL;DR

This paper presents the first combined presentation of Gaia's low-resolution BP/RP spectra with high-resolution RVS spectra for 12 transient events, including new spectra and classifications, enhancing the understanding of Gaia's spectroscopic data.

Contribution

It introduces the first combined display of Gaia's BP/RP and RVS spectra for multiple transient events, including a new RVS spectrum and classifications, aiding future data releases.

Findings

Five unknown transients identified as potential scientific opportunities.

Classified transients include supernovae, a cataclysmic variable, a binary microlensing event, and a young stellar object.

First combined presentation of Gaia's low- and high-resolution spectra for these events.

Abstract

Gaia Photometric Science Alerts (GPSA) publishes Gaia G magnitudes and Blue Photometer (BP) and Red Photometer (RP) low-resolution epoch spectra of transient events. 27 high-resolution spectra from Gaia's Radial Velocity Spectrometer (RVS) of 12 GPSAs have also been published. These 27 RVS epoch spectra are presented next to their corresponding BP and RP epoch spectra in a single place for the first time. We also present one new RVS spectrum of a 13th GPSA that could not be published by the GPSA system. Of the 13 GPSA with RVS spectra, five are photometrically classified as unknown, five as supernovae (three as SN Ia, one as SN II, one as SN IIP), one as a cataclysmic variable, one as a binary microlensing event and one as a young stellar object. The five GPSAs classified as unknown are potential scientific opportunities, while all of them are a preview of the epoch RVS spectra that will be published in Gaia's fourth data release.