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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.
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.
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 use the spectroscopy and homogeneous photometry of 97 Type Ia supernovae obtained by the emph{Carnegie Supernova Project} as well as a subset of 36 Type Ia supernovae presented by Zheng et al. (2018) to examine maximum-light correlations in a four-dimensional (4-D) parameter space: $B$-band absolute magnitude, $M_B$, ion{Si}{2}~$lambda6355$ velocity, vsi, and ion{Si}{2} pseudo-equivalent widths pEW(ion{Si}{2}~$lambda6355$) and pEW(ion{Si}{2}~$lambda5972$). It is shown using Gaussian mixture models (GMMs) that the original four groups in the Branch diagram are well-defined and robust in this parameterization. We find three continuous groups that describe the behavior of our sample in [$M_B$, vsi] space. Extending the GMM into the full 4-D space yields a grouping system that only slightly alters group definitions in the [$M_B$, vsi] projection, showing that most of the clustering information in [$M_B$, vsi] is already contained in the 2-D GMM groupings. However, the full 4-D space does divide group membership for faster objects between core-normal and broad-line objects in the Branch diagram. A significant correlation between $M_B$ and pEW(ion{Si}{2}~$lambda5972$) is found, which implies that Branch group membership can be well-constrained by spectroscopic quantities alone. In general, we find that higher-dimensional GMMs reduce the uncertainty of group membership for objects between the originally defined Branch groups. We also find that the broad-line Branch group becomes nearly distinct with the inclusion of vsi, indicating that this subclass of SNe Ia may be somehow different from the other groups.
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 an analysis of observed trends and correlations between a large range of spectral and photometric parameters of more than 100 type II supernovae (SNe~II), during the photospheric phase. We define a common epoch for all SNe of 50 days post-explosion where the majority of the sample is likely to be under similar physical conditions. Several correlation matrices are produced to search for interesting trends between more than 30 distinct light-curve and spectral properties that characterize the diversity of SNe~II. Overall, SNe with higher expansion velocities are brighter, have more rapidly declining light-curves, shorter plateau durations, and higher $^{56}$Ni masses. Using a larger sample than previous studies, we argue that `$Pd$ - the plateau duration from the transition of the initial to `plateau decline rates to the end of the `plateau - is a better indicator of the hydrogen envelope mass than the traditionally used optically thick phase duration ($OPTd$: explosion epoch to end of plateau). This argument is supported by the fact that $Pd$ also correlates with s$_3$, the light-curve decline rate at late times: lower $Pd$ values correlate with larger s$_3$ decline rates. Large s$_3$ decline rates are likely related to lower envelope masses that enables gamma-ray escape. We also find a significant anticorrelation between $Pd$ and s$_2$ (the plateau decline rate), confirming the long standing hypothesis that faster declining SNe~II (SNe~IIL) are the result of explosions with lower hydrogen envelope masses and therefore have shorter $Pd$ values.