No Arabic abstract
We present a statistical analysis of the environments of 11 supernovae (SNe) which occurred in 6 nearby galaxies (z $lesssim$ 0.016). All galaxies were observed with MUSE, the high spatial resolution integral field spectrograph mounted to the 8m VLT UT4. These data enable us to map the full spatial extent of host galaxies up to $sim$3 effective radii. In this way, not only can one characterise the specific host environment of each SN, one can compare their properties with stellar populations within the full range of other environments within the host. We present a method that consists of selecting all HII regions found within host galaxies from 2D extinction-corrected H$alpha$ emission maps. These regions are then characterised in terms of their H$alpha$ equivalent widths, star formation rates, and oxygen abundances. Identifying HII regions spatially coincident with SN explosion sites, we are thus able to determine where within the distributions of host galaxy e.g. metallicities and ages each SN is found, thus providing new constraints on SN progenitor properties. This initial pilot study using MUSE opens the way for a revolution in SN environment studies where we are now able to study multiple environment SN progenitor dependencies using a single instrument and single pointing.
SN 2002cx-like Type Ia supernovae (also known as SNe Iax) represent one of the most numerous peculiar SN classes. They differ from normal SNe Ia by having fainter peak magnitudes, faster decline rates and lower photospheric velocities, displaying a wide diversity in these properties. We present both integral-field and long-slit visual-wavelength spectroscopy of the host galaxies and explosion sites of SNe Iax to provide constraints on their progenitor formation scenarios. The SN Iax explosion site metallicity distribution is similar to that of core-collapse (CC) SNe and metal-poor compared to normal SNe Ia. Fainter members, speculated to form distinctly from brighter SN Iax, are found at a range of metallicities, extending to very metal-poor environments. Although the SN Iax explosion sites ages and star-formation rates are comparatively older and less intense than the distribution of star forming regions across their host galaxies, we confirm the presence of young stellar populations (SP) at explosion environments for most SNe Iax, expanded here to a larger sample. Ages of the young SP (several $times 10^{7}$ to $10^8$~yrs) are consistent with predictions for young thermonuclear and electron-capture SN progenitors. The lack of extremely young SP at the explosion sites disfavours very massive progenitors such as Wolf-Rayet explosions with significant fall-back. We find weak ionised gas in the only SN Iax host without obvious signs of star-formation. The source of the ionisation remains ambiguous but appears unlikely to be mainly due to young, massive stars.
AT 2018cow was the nearest and best studied example of a new breed of extra-galactic, luminous and rapidly-evolving transient. Both the progenitor systems and explosion mechanisms of these rapid transients remain a mystery - the energetics, spectral signatures, and timescales make them challenging to interpret in established classes of supernovae and tidal disruption events. The rich, multi-wavelength data-set of AT 2018cow has still left several interpretations viable to explain the nature of this event. In this paper we analyse integral-field spectroscopic data of the host galaxy, CGCG 137-068, to compare environmental constraints with leading progenitor models. We find the explosion site of AT 2018cow to be very typical of core-collapse supernovae (known to form from stars with MZAMS ~8-25M), and infer a young stellar population age at the explosion site of few times 10Myr, at slightly sub-solar metallicity. When comparing to expectations for exotic intermediate-mass black hole (IMBH) tidal disruption events,we find no evidence for a potential host system of the IMBH. In particular, there are no abrupt changes in metallicity or kinematics in the vicinity of the explosion site, arguing against the presence of a distinct host system. The proximity of AT 2018cow to strong star-formation in the host galaxy makes us favour a massive stellar progenitor for this event.
We characterize the local (2-kpc sized) environments of Type Ia, II, and Ib/c supernovae (SNe) that have recently occurred in nearby ($dlesssim50$ Mpc) galaxies. Using ultraviolet (UV, from GALEX) and infrared (IR, from WISE) maps of 359 galaxies and a sample of 472 SNe, we measure the star formation rate surface density ($Sigma_{rm SFR}$) and stellar mass surface density ($Sigma_star$) in a 2-kpc beam centered on each SN site. We show that core-collapse SNe are preferentially located along the resolved galactic star-forming main sequence, whereas Type Ia SNe are extended to lower values of $Sigma_{rm SFR}$ at fixed $Sigma_star$, indicative of locations inside quiescent galaxies or quiescent regions of galaxies. We also test how well the radial distribution of each SN type matches the radial distributions of UV and IR light in each host galaxy. We find that, to first order, the distributions of all types of SNe mirror that of both near-IR light (3.4 and 4.5 microns, tracing the stellar mass distribution) and mid-IR light (12 and 22 microns, tracing emission from hot, small grains), and also resemble our best-estimate $Sigma_{rm SFR}$. All types of SNe appear more radially concentrated than the UV emission of their host galaxies. In more detail, the distributions of Type II SNe show small statistical differences from that of near-IR light. We attribute this overall structural uniformity to the fact that within any individual galaxy, $Sigma_{rm SFR}$ and $Sigma_star$ track one another well, with variations in $Sigma_{rm SFR}/Sigma_star$ most visible when comparing between galaxies.
This paper studied the faint, diffuse extended X-ray emission associated with the radio lobes and the hot gas in the intracluster medium (ICM) environment for a sample of radio galaxies. We used shallow ($sim 10$ ks) archival Chandra observations for 60 radio galaxies (7 FR I and 53 FR II) with $0.0222 le z le 1.785$ selected from the 298 extragalactic radio sources identified in the 3CR catalog. We used Bayesian statistics to look for any asymmetry in the extended X-ray emission between regions that contain the radio lobes and regions that contain the hot gas in the ICM. In the Chandra broadband ($0.5 - 7.0$ keV), which has the highest detected X-ray flux and the highest signal-to-noise ratio, we found that the non-thermal X-ray emission from the radio lobes dominates the thermal X-ray emission from the environment for $sim 77%$ of the sources in our sample. We also found that the relative amount of on-jet axis non-thermal emission from the radio lobes tends to increase with redshift compared to the off-jet axis thermal emission from the environment. This suggests that the dominant X-ray mechanism for the non-thermal X-ray emission in the radio lobes is due to the inverse Compton upscattering of cosmic microwave background (CMB) seed photons by relativistic electrons in the radio lobes, a process for which the observed flux is roughly redshift independent due to the increasing CMB energy density with increasing redshift.
We present Chandra observations of the hybrid morphology radio sources 3C 433 and 4C 65.15, two members of the rare class of objects possessing an FR I jet on one side of the core and an FR II lobe on the other. The X-ray spectrum of 3C 433 shows intrinsic absorption (with a column density of N_H=8e22 cm-2), such as is typical of FR II narrow-line radio galaxies. There is excess X-ray emission below 2 keV containing contributions from diffuse soft X-ray emission (likely hot gas with kT~1.2 keV) as well as from the nucleus. The core of 3C 433 is extended in hard X-rays, presumably due to X-ray emission from the inner-jet knot on the FR I side that is apparent in the radio map. It is possible that the X-ray emission from this inner-jet knot is absorbed by the dust known to be present in the host galaxy. The spectrum of 4C 65.15 can be modeled with a simple power law with perhaps mild intrinsic absorption (N_H=1.3e21 cm-2). X-ray emission is detected at the bend in the FR I jet. This X-ray jet emission lies above the extrapolation from the high-frequency radio synchrotron emission and has a spectral slope flatter than alpha_rx, indicating that the jet spectral energy distribution is concave as with other FR II quasar jets. Both 3C 433 and 4C 65.15 have unabsorbed X-ray luminosities, radio luminosities, and optical spectra typically seen in comparable sources with FR II morphologies. Presumably the FR I structure seen on one side in these hybrid sources is generated by a powerful jet interacting with a relatively dense environment.