No Arabic abstract
Shifting the focus of Type Ia supernova (SN Ia) cosmology to the near-infrared (NIR) is a promising way to significantly reduce the systematic errors, as the strategy minimizes our reliance on the empirical width-luminosity relation and uncertain dust laws. Observations in the NIR are also crucial for our understanding of the origins and evolution of these events, further improving their cosmological utility. Any future experiments in the rest-frame NIR will require knowledge of the SN Ia NIR spectroscopic diversity, which is currently based on a small sample of observed spectra. Along with the accompanying paper, Phillips et al. (2018), we introduce the Carnegie Supernova Project-II (CSP-II), to follow up nearby SNe Ia in both the optical and the NIR. In particular, this paper focuses on the CSP-II NIR spectroscopy program, describing the survey strategy, instrumental setups, data reduction, sample characteristics, and future analyses on the data set. In collaboration with the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA) Supernova Group, we obtained 661 NIR spectra of 157 SNe Ia. Within this sample, 451 NIR spectra of 90 SNe Ia have corresponding CSP-II follow-up light curves. Such a sample will allow detailed studies of the NIR spectroscopic properties of SNe Ia, providing a different perspective on the properties of the unburned material, radioactive and stable nickel produced, progenitor magnetic fields, and searches for possible signatures of companion stars.
We present $81$ near-infrared (NIR) spectra of $30$ Type II supernovae (SNe II) from the Carnegie Supernova Project-II (CSP-II), the largest such dataset published to date. We identify a number of NIR features and characterize their evolution over time. The NIR spectroscopic properties of SNe II fall into two distinct groups. This classification is first based on the strength of the He I $lambda1.083,mu$m absorption during the plateau phase; SNe II are either significantly above (spectroscopically strong) or below $50$ angstroms (spectroscopically weak) in pseudo equivalent width. However between the two groups, other properties, such as the timing of CO formation and the presence of Sr II, are also observed. Most surprisingly, the distinct weak and strong NIR spectroscopic classes correspond to SNe II with slow and fast declining light curves, respectively. These two photometric groups match the modern nomenclature of SNe IIP and IIL. Including NIR spectra previously published, 18 out of 19 SNe II follow this slow declining-spectroscopically weak and fast declining-spectroscopically strong correspondence. This is in apparent contradiction to the recent findings in the optical that slow and fast decliners show a continuous distribution of properties. The weak SNe II show a high-velocity component of helium that may be caused by a thermal excitation from a reverse-shock created by the outer ejecta interacting with the red supergiant wind, but the origin of the observed dichotomy is not understood. Further studies are crucial in determining whether the apparent differences in the NIR are due to distinct physical processes or a gap in the current data set.
The Carnegie Supernova Project-II (CSP-II) was an NSF-funded, four-year program to obtain optical and near-infrared observations of a Cosmology sample of $sim100$ Type Ia supernovae located in the smooth Hubble flow ($0.03 lesssim z lesssim 0.10$). Light curves were also obtained of a Physics sample composed of 90 nearby Type Ia supernovae at $z leq 0.04$ selected for near-infrared spectroscopic time-series observations. The primary emphasis of the CSP-II is to use the combination of optical and near-infrared photometry to achieve a distance precision of better than 5%. In this paper, details of the supernova sample, the observational strategy, and the characteristics of the photometric data are provided. In a companion paper, the near-infrared spectroscopy component of the project is presented.
We present the $H$-band wavelength region of thirty post-maximum light near-infrared (NIR) spectra of fourteen transitional and sub-luminous type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia), extending from $+$5d to +20d relative to the epoch of $B$-band maximum. We introduce a new observable, the blue-edge velocity, $v_{edge}$, of the prominent Fe/Co/Ni-peak $H$-band emission feature which is quantitatively measured. The $v_{edge}$ parameter is found to slowly decrease over sub-type ranging from around $-$13,000km/s for transitional SNe~Ia, down to $-$5,000km/s for the sub-luminous SNe Ia. Furthermore, inspection of the +10$pm$3d spectra indicates that $v_{edge}$ is correlated with the color-stretch parameter, s$_{BV}$, and hence with peak luminosity. These results follow the previous findings that brighter SNe Ia tend to have $^{56}$Ni located at higher velocities as compared to sub-luminous objects. As $v_{edge}$ is a model-independent parameter, we propose it can be used in combination with traditional observational diagnostics to provide a new avenue to robustly distinguish between leading SNe Ia explosion models.
This is the first release of optical spectroscopic data of low-redshift Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) by the Carnegie Supernova Project including 604 previously unpublished spectra of 93 SNe Ia. The observations cover a range of phases from 12 days before to over 150 days after the time of B-band maximum light. With the addition of 228 near-maximum spectra from the literature we study the diversity among SNe Ia in a quantitative manner. For that purpose, spectroscopic parameters are employed such as expansion velocities from spectral line blueshifts, and pseudo-equivalent widths (pW). The values of those parameters at maximum light are obtained for 78 objects, thus providing a characterization of SNe Ia that may help to improve our understanding of the properties of the exploding systems and the thermonuclear flame propagation. Two objects, namely SNe 2005M and 2006is, stand out from the sample by showing peculiar Si II and S II velocities but otherwise standard velocities for the rest of the ions. We further study the correlations between spectroscopic and photometric parameters such as light-curve decline rate and color. In agreement with previous studies, we find that the pW of Si II absorption features are very good indicators of light-curve decline rate. Furthermore, we demonstrate that parameters such as pW2(SiII4130) and pW6(SiII5972) provide precise calibrations of the peak B-band luminosity with dispersions of ~0.15 mag. In the search for a secondary parameter in the calibration of peak luminosity for SNe Ia, we find a ~2--3-sigma correlation between B-band Hubble residuals and the velocity at maximum light of S II and Si II lines.
We present optical and near-infrared broadband photometry and optical spectra of AT 2014ej from the the Carnegie Supernova Project-II. These observations are complemented with data from the CHilean Automatic Supernova sEarch, the Public ESO Spectroscopic Survey of Transient Objects, and from the Backyard Observatory Supernova Search. Observational signatures of AT 2014ej reveal that it is similar to other members of the gap-transient subclass known as luminous red novae (LRNe), including the ubiquitous double hump light curve and spectral properties akin to the LRN SN 2017jfs. A medium-dispersion, visual-wavelength spectrum of AT 2014ej taken the Magellan Clay telescope, exhibits a P Cygni H$alpha$ feature characterized by a blue velocity at zero intensity of $approx 110$ km s$^{-1}$ and a P Cygni minimum velocity of $approx70$ km s$^{-1}$, and which we attribute to emission from a circumstellar wind. Inspection of pre-outbust Hubble Space Telescope images yields no conclusive progenitor detection. In comparison with a sample of LRNe from the literature, AT 2014ej lies among the brighter end of the luminosity distribution. Comparison of the ultra-violet, optical, infrared (UVOIR) light curves of well-observed LRNe to common-envelope evolution models from the literature, indicates the models under predict the luminosity of the comparison sample at all phases and also produce inconsistent time-scales of the secondary peak. Future efforts to model LRNe should expand upon the current parameter space explored and therefore may consider more massive systems and a wider range of dynamical timescales.