Joseph P. Bernstein

SNANA: A Public Software Package for Supernova Analysis

We describe a general analysis package for supernova (SN) light curves, called SNANA, that contains a simulation, a light-curve fitter, and a cosmology fitter. The software is designed with the primary goal of using SNe Ia as distance indicators for the determination of cosmological parameters, but it can also be used to study efficiencies for analyses of SN rates, estimate contamination from non-Ia SNe, and optimize future surveys. Several SN models are available within the same software architecture, allowing technical features such as K-corrections to be consistently used among multiple models, and thus making it easier to make detailed comparisons between models. New and improved light-curve models can be easily added. The software works with arbitrary surveys and telescopes and has already been used by several collaborations, leading to more robust and easy-to-use code. This software is not intended as a final product release, but rather it is designed to undergo continual improvements from the community as more is learned about SNe. We give an overview of the SNANA capabilities, as well as some of its limitations.

Photometric redshift analysis in the Dark Energy Survey science verification data

We present results from a study of the photometric redshift performance of the Dark Energy Survey (DES), using the early data from a Science Verification (SV) period of observations in late 2012 and early 2013 that provided science-quality images for almost 200 sq.~deg.~at the nominal depth of the survey. We assess the photometric redshift performance using about 15000 galaxies with spectroscopic redshifts available from other surveys. These galaxies are used, in different configurations, as a calibration sample, and photo-

A More General Model for the Intrinsic Scatter in Type Ia Supernova Distance Moduli

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Mass and galaxy distributions of four massive galaxy clusters from Dark Energy Survey Science Verification data

s are obtained and studied using most of the existing photo-

The LMC geometry and outer stellar populations from early DES data

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Combining Dark Energy Survey Science Verification Data with Near Infrared Data from the ESO VISTA Hemisphere Survey

codes. A weighting method in a multi-dimensional color-magnitude space is applied to the spectroscopic sample in order to evaluate the photo-

PHOTOMETRIC SUPERNOVA COSMOLOGY WITH BEAMS AND SDSS-II

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Type Ia supernovae selection and forecast of cosmology constraints for the Dark Energy Survey

performance with sets that mimic the full DES photometric sample, which is on average significantly deeper than the calibration sample due to the limited depth of spectroscopic surveys. Empirical photo-

PreCam, a Precursor Observational Campaign for Calibration of the Dark Energy Survey

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DES13S2cmm: The First Superluminous Supernova from the Dark Energy Survey

methods using, for instance, Artificial Neural Networks or Random Forests, yield the best performance in the tests, achieving core photo-