No Arabic abstract
The Supernova Cosmology Project has conducted the `See Change programme, aimed at discovering and observing high-redshift (1.13 $leq$ z $leq$ 1.75) Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). We used multi-filter Hubble Space Telescope (HST) observations of massive galaxy clusters with sufficient cadence to make the observed SN Ia light curves suitable for a cosmological probe of dark energy at z > 0.5. This See Change sample of SNe Ia with multi-colour light curves will be the largest to date at these redshifts. As part of the See Change programme, we obtained ground-based spectroscopy of each discovered transient and/or its host galaxy. Here we present Very Large Telescope (VLT) spectra of See Change transient host galaxies, deriving their redshifts, and host parameters such as stellar mass and star formation rate. Of the 39 See Change transients/hosts that were observed with the VLT, we successfully determined the redshift for 26, including 15 SNe Ia at z > 0.97. We show that even in passive environments, it is possible to recover secure redshifts for the majority of SN hosts out to z = 1.5. We find that with typical exposure times of 3 - 4 hrs on an 8m-class telescope we can recover ~75% of SN Ia redshifts in the range of 0.97 < z < 1.5. Furthermore, we show that the combination of HST photometry and VLT spectroscopy is able to provide estimates of host galaxy stellar mass that are sufficiently accurate for use in a mass-step correction in the cosmological analysis.
We use a sample of 1338 spectroscopically confirmed and photometrically classified Type Ia Supernovae (SNe Ia), sourced from the CSP, CfA, SDSS-II, and SNLS supernova samples, to examine the relationships between SNe Ia and the galaxies that host them. Our results provide confirmation with improved statistical significance that SNe Ia, after standardization, are on average more luminous in massive hosts (significance $rm > 5 sigma$), and decline more rapidly in massive hosts (significance $rm > 9sigma$) and in hosts with low specific star formation rates (significance $rm > 8sigma$). We study the variation of these relationships with redshift and detect no evolution. We split SNe Ia into pairs of subsets that are based on the properties of the hosts, and fit cosmological models to each subset. Including both systematic and statistical uncertainties, we do not find any significant shift in the best-fit cosmological parameters between the subsets. Among different SN Ia subsets, we find that SNe Ia in hosts with high specific star formation rates have the least intrinsic scatter ($rm sigma_{int}=0.08pm0.01$) in luminosity after standardization.
We aim to present 70 spectra of 68 new high-redshift type Ia supernovae (SNeIa) measured at ESOs VLT during the final two years of operation (2006-2008) of the Supernova Legacy Survey (SNLS). We use the full five year SNLS VLT spectral set to investigate a possible spectral evolution of SNeIa populations with redshift and study spectral properties as a function of lightcurve fit parameters and the mass of the host-galaxy. Reduction and extraction are based on both IRAF standard tasks and our own reduction pipeline. Redshifts are estimated from host-galaxy lines whenever possible or alternatively from supernova features. We used the spectrophotometric SNIa model SALT2 combined with a set of galaxy templates that model the host-galaxy contamination to assess the type Ia nature of the candidates. We identify 68 new SNeIa with redshift ranging from z=0.207 to z=0.98 (<z>=0.62). Each spectrum is presented individually along with its best-fit SALT2 model. The five year dataset contains 209 spectra corresponding to 192 SNeIa identified at the VLT. We also publish the redshifts of other candidates (host galaxies or other transients) whose spectra were obtained at the same time as the spectra of live SNe Ia. Using the full VLT SNeIa sample, we build composite spectra around maximum light with cuts in color, lightcurve shape parameter (stretch), host-galaxy mass and redshift. We find that high-z SNeIa are bluer, brighter and have weaker intermediate mass element absorption lines than their low-z counterparts at a level consistent with what is expected from selection effects. We also find a flux excess in the range [3000-3400] A for SNeIa in low mass host-galaxies or with locally blue U-V colors, and suggest that the UV flux (or local color) may be used in future cosmological studies as a third standardization parameter in addition to stretch and color.
Brighter type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) prefer less massive hosts with higher star formation. This bias is over-corrected for SNe Ia standardized using the standard Tripp relation, resulting in a step-like dependence of standardized distance on host properties. Using the PISCO supernova host sample and SDSS, GALEX, and 2MASS photometry, we compare host galaxy stellar mass and star formation rate (SFR) estimates from different observation and fitting techniques and their impact on the mass step and sSFR step biases. The step size for FAST++ mass estimates was $-0.04pm0.02$ mag for FAST++ and STARLIGHT, increasing by 0.02 mag for ZPEG. UV information had no effect on measured mass step size or location. Our small sample sizes resulted in all mass step size uncertainties being within 2$sigma$ significance of a zero step due. Regardless, mass step sizes were all consistently within 1$sigma$ of each other. Specific SFR (sSFR) step sizes are $0.05pm0.03$ mag (H$alpha$) and $0.06pm0.03$ mag (UV) for a reduced 51 host sample with SDSS and GALEX coverage, with 50% increase in step size uncertainties. Step location was determined by mass sample used to normalize sSFR. The step size reduces by 0.04 mag with an unconstrained location using all available 73 hosts with H$alpha$ measurements. Despite reduced sample sizes, we find no evidence that observation or fitting technique choice drives mass step measurement, but cannot conclude the same for the sSFR step. Further work will focus on differing star formation epochs and dust attenuation corrections effects on the sSFR bias.
We present an analysis of the light curve (LC) decline rates $(Delta m_{15})$ of 407 normal and peculiar supernovae (SNe) Ia and global parameters of their host galaxies. As previously known, there is a significant correlation between the $Delta m_{15}$ of normal SNe Ia and global ages (morphologies, colours, masses) of their hosts. On average, those normal SNe Ia that are in galaxies from the Red Sequence (early-type, massive, old hosts) have faster declining LCs in comparison with those from the Blue Cloud (late-type, less massive, younger hosts) of the colour-mass diagram. The observed correlations between the $Delta m_{15}$ of normal SNe Ia and hosts parameters appear to be due to the superposition of at least two distinct populations of faster and slower declining normal SNe Ia from older and younger stellar components. We show, for the first time, that the $Delta m_{15}$ of 91bg- and 91T-like SNe is independent of host morphology and colour. The distribution of hosts on the colour-mass diagram confirms the known tendency for 91bg-like SNe to occur in globally red/old galaxies while 91T-like events prefer blue/younger hosts. On average, the youngest global ages of 02cx-like SNe hosts and their positions in the colour-mass diagram hint that these events likely originate from young population, but they differ from 91T-like events in the LC decline rate. Finally, we discuss the possible explosion channels and present our favoured SN Ia models that have the potential to explain the observed SN-host relations.
We present the results of a study of the host galaxies of high redshift Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). We provide a catalog of 18 hosts of SNe Ia observed with the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) by the High-z Supernova Search Team (HZT), including images, scale-lengths, measurements of integrated (Hubble equivalent) BVRIZ photometry in bands where the galaxies are brighter than m ~ 25 mag, and galactocentric distances of the supernovae. We compare the residuals of SN Ia distance measurements from cosmological fits to measurable properties of the supernova host galaxies that might be expected to correlate with variable properties of the progenitor population, such as host galaxy color and position of the supernova. We find mostly null results; the current data are generally consistent with no correlations of the distance residuals with host galaxy properties in the redshift range 0.42 < z < 1.06. Although a subsample of SN hosts shows a formally significant (3-sigma) correlation between apparent V-R host color and distance residuals, the correlation is not consistent with the null results from other host colors probed by our largest samples. There is also evidence for the same correlations between SN Ia properties and host type at low redshift and high redshift. These similarities support the current practice of extrapolating properties of the nearby population to high redshifts pending more robust detections of any correlations between distance residuals from cosmological fits and host properties.