Inferring Kilonova Ejecta Photospheric Properties from Early Blackbody Spectra

Abstract We present simple analytic corrections to the standard blackbody fitting used for early kilonova emission. We consider a spherical, relativistically expanding shell that radiates thermally at a single temperature in its own rest frame. Due to relativistic effects, including Doppler boosting, time delay, and temperature evolution, the observed temperature is smeared across different polar angles by approximately ∼10%. While the observed spectrum remains roughly consistent with a single-temperature blackbody, neglecting relativistic effects leads to significant systematic inaccuracies: the inferred photospheric velocity and temperature are overestimated by up to ∼50% for mildly relativistic velocities. By applying our analytic corrections, these deviations are reduced to within 10%, even in cases where the photosphere is receding and cooling is considered. Applying our corrections to observed kilonovae (AT2017gfo and the thermal component of GRB 211211A) reveals that standard blackbody fitting overestimated the inferred velocities and temperatures by 10%–40%; such deviations can alter the inferred formation of heavy elements.