Spectroscopic and photometric observations of the nearby Type Ia Supernova (SN Ia) SN 2014J are presented. Spectroscopic observations were taken -8 to +10 d relative to B-band maximum, using FRODOSpec, a multi-purpose integral-field unit spectrograph
. The observations range from 3900 AA to 9000 AA. SN 2014J is located in M82 which makes it the closest SN Ia studied in at least the last 28 years. It is a spectrosopically normal SN Ia with high velocity features. We model the spectra of SN 2014J with a Monte Carlo (MC) radiative transfer code, using the abundance tomography technique. SN 2014J is highly reddened, with a host galaxy extinction of E(B-V)=1.2 (R_V=1.38). It has a $Delta$m_15(B) of 1.08$pm$0.03 when corrected for extinction. As SN 2014J is a normal SN Ia, the density structure of the classical W7 model was selected. The model and photometric luminosities are both consistent with B-band maximum occurring on JD 2456690.4$pm$0.12. The abundance of the SN 2014J behaves like other normal SN Ia, with significant amounts of silicon (12% by mass) and sulphur (9% by mass) at high velocities (12300 km s$^{-1}$) and the low-velocity ejecta (v<6500 km s$^{-1}$) consists almost entirely of $^{56}$Ni.
ASASSN-14ae is a candidate tidal disruption event (TDE) found at the center of SDSS J110840.11+340552.2 ($dsimeq200$~Mpc) by the All-Sky Automated Survey for Supernovae (ASAS-SN). We present ground-based and Swift follow-up photometric and spectrosco
pic observations of the source, finding that the transient had a peak luminosity of $Lsimeq8times10^{43}$~erg~s$^{-1}$ and a total integrated energy of $Esimeq1.7times10^{50}$ ergs radiated over the $sim5$ months of observations presented. The blackbody temperature of the transient remains roughly constant at $Tsim20,000$~K while the luminosity declines by nearly 1.5 orders of magnitude during this time, a drop that is most consistent with an exponential, $Lpropto e^{-t/t_0}$ with $t_0simeq39$~days. The source has broad Balmer lines in emission at all epochs as well as a broad He II feature emerging in later epochs. We compare the color and spectral evolution to both supernovae and normal AGN to show that { ame} does not resemble either type of object and conclude that a TDE is the most likely explanation for our observations. At $z=0.0436$, ASASSN-14ae is the lowest-redshift TDE candidate discovered at optical/UV wavelengths to date, and we estimate that ASAS-SN may discover $0.1 - 3$ of these events every year in the future.
We present ground-based and HST optical and infrared observations of XRF 100316D / SN 2010bh. It is seen that the optical light curves of SN 2010bh evolve at a faster rate than the archetype GRB-SN 1998bw, but at a similar rate to SN 2006aj, a supern
ova that was spectroscopically linked with XRF 060218, and at a similar rate to non-GRB associated type Ic SN 1994I. We estimate the rest-frame extinction of this event from our optical data to be E(B-V)=0.18 +/- 0.08 mag. We find the V-band absolute magnitude of SN 2010bh to be M_{V}=-18.62 +/- 0.08, which is the faintest peak V-band magnitude observed to-date for a spectroscopically-confirmed GRB-SNe. When we investigate the origin of the flux at t-t_{o}=0.598 days, it is shown that the light is not synchrotron in origin, but is likely coming from the supernova shock break-out. We then use our optical and infrared data to create a quasi-bolometric light curve of SN 2010bh which we model with a simple analytical formula. The results of our modeling imply that SN 2010bh synthesized a nickel mass of M_{Ni} approx 0.10 M_{sun}, ejected M_{ej} approx 2.2 M_{sun} and has an explosion energy of E_{k} approx 1.4 x 10^{52} erg. Finally, for a sample 22 GRB-SNe we check for a correlation between the stretch factors and luminosity factors in the R band and conclude that no statistically-significant correlation exists.
We present ground-based and HST optical observations of the optical transients (OTs) of long-duration Gamma Ray Bursts (GRBs) 060729 and 090618, both at a redshift of z = 0.54. For GRB 060729, bumps are seen in the optical light curves (LCs), and the
late-time broadband spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of the OT resemble those of local type Ic supernovae (SNe). For GRB 090618, the dense sampling of our optical observations has allowed us to detect well-defined bumps in the optical LCs, as well as a change in colour, that are indicative of light coming from a core-collapse SN. The accompanying SNe for both events are individually compared with SN1998bw, a known GRB-supernova, and SN1994I, a typical type Ic supernova without a known GRB counterpart, and in both cases the brightness and temporal evolution more closely resemble SN1998bw. We also exploit our extensive optical and radio data for GRB 090618, as well as the publicly-available SWIFT -XRT data, and discuss the properties of the afterglow at early times. In the context of a simple jet-like model, the afterglow of GRB 090618 is best explained by the presence of a jet-break at t-to > 0.5 days. We then compare the rest-frame, peak V -band absolute magnitudes of all of the GRB and X-Ray Flash (XRF)-associated SNe with a large sample of local type Ibc SNe, concluding that, when host extinction is considered, the peak magnitudes of the GRB/XRF-SNe cannot be distinguished from the peak magnitudes of non-GRB/XRF SNe.
We present the results from a multi-epoch survey of two regions of M33 using the 3.5m WIYN telescope. The inner field is located close to the centre of the galaxy, with the outer region situated about 5.1 kpc away in the southern spiral arm, allowing
us to sample a large metallicity range. We have data for 167 fundamental mode Cepheids in the two regions. The reddening-free Wesenheit magnitude Wvi period-luminosity relations were used to establish the distance modulus of each region, with mu_{inner} = 24.37 +- 0.02 mag and mu_{outer} = 24.54 +- 0.03 mag. The apparent discrepancy between these two results can be explained by the significant metallicity gradient of the galaxy. We determine a value for the metallicity parameter of the Period--Luminosity relation gamma = d(m-M)/d log(Z) = -0.29 +- 0.11 mag/dex, consistent with previous measurements. This leads to a metallicity corrected distance modulus to M33 of 24.53 +- 0.11 mag.
Galactic Cepheids in the vicinity of the Sun have a residual line-of-sight velocity, or gamma-velocity, which shows a systematic blueshift of about 2 km/s compared to an axisymmetric rotation model of the Milky Way. This term is either related to the
space motion of the star and, consequently, to the kinematic structure of our Galaxy, or it is the result of the dynamical structure of the Cepheids atmosphere. We aim to show that these residual gamma-velocities are an intrinsic property of Cepheids. We observed nine galactic Cepheids with the HARPS spectroscope, focusing specifically on 17 spectral lines. For each spectral line of each star, we computed the gamma-velocity (resp. gamma-asymmetry) as an average value of the interpolated radial velocity (resp. line asymmetry) curve. For each Cepheid in our sample, a linear relation is found between the gamma-velocities of the various spectral lines and their corresponding gamma-asymmetries, showing that residual gamma-velocities stem from the intrinsic properties of Cepheids. We also provide a physical reference to the stellar gamma-velocity: it should be zero when the gamma-asymmetry is zero. Following this definition, we provide very precise and physically calibrated estimates of the gamma-velocities for all stars of our sample. To understand this very subtle gamma-asymmetry effect, further numerical studies are needed. Cepheids atmosphere are strongly affected by pulsational dynamics, convective flows, nonlinear physics, and complex radiative transport. Hence, all of these effects have to be incorporated simultaneously and consistently into the numerical models to reproduce the observed line profiles in detail.
We have started a survey of M 33 in order to find variable stars and Cepheids in particular. We have obtained more than 30 epochs of gri data with the CFHT and the one-square-degree camera MegaCam. We present first results from this survey, including
the search for variable objects and a basic characterization of the various groups of variable stars.
