CONFIRMATION OF A STAR FORMATION BIAS IN TYPE Ia SUPERNOVA DISTANCES AND ITS EFFECT ON THE MEASUREMENT OF THE HUBBLE CONSTANT

By M. Rigault, G. Aldering, M. Kowalski, Y. Copin, P. Antilogus, C. Aragon, S. Bailey, C. Baltay, D. Baugh, S. Bongard and 28 more. 2014

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Previously we used the Nearby Supernova Factory sample to show that Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) having locally star-forming environments are dimmer than SNe Ia having locally passive environments. Here we use the Constitution sample together with host galaxy data from GALEX to independently confirm that result. The effect is seen using both the SALT2 and MLCS2k2 lightcurve fitting and standardization methods, with brightness differences of 0.094 ± 0.037 mag for SALT2 and 0.155 ± 0.041 mag for MLCS2k2 with RV = 2.5. When combined with our previous measurement the effect is 0.094 ± 0.025 mag for SALT2. If the ratio of these local SN Ia environments changes with redshift or sample selection, this can lead to a bias in cosmological measurements. We explore this issue further, using as an example the direct measurement of H0. GALEX observations show that the SNe Ia having standardized absolute magnitudes calibrated via the Cepheid period–luminosity relation using the Hubble Space Telescope originate in predominately star-forming environments, whereas only ∼50% of the Hubble-flow comparison sample have locally star-forming environments. As a consequence, the H0 measurement using SNe Ia is currently overestimated. Correcting for this bias, we find a value of 70.6 ± 2.6 km s−1 Mpc−1 when using the LMC distance, Milky Way parallaxes, and the NGC 4258 megamaser as the Cepheid zero point, and 68.8 ± 3.3 km s−1 Mpc−1 when only using NGC 4258. Our correction brings the direct measurement of H0 within ∼1 σ of recent indirect measurements based on the cosmic microwave background power spectrum.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/584afcc18bee207fbaf4fbf0cd391d897989abc8

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Citations in the corpus

Nonminimal dark sector physics and cosmological tensions (2019, background): “[22–26] in the context of the local distance”
Clarifying the Hubble constant tension with a Bayesian hierarchical model of the local distance ladder (2017, methodology): “Rigault et al. (2015) found that the dependence of SN luminosity on local star-formation rate could bias H0 high by almost 3 km s−1 Mpc−1, thus apparently explaining much of the tension; however, a similar analysis with a larger SN sample, selected using the same cuts employed in cosmological…”
New physics in light of the H0 tension: An alternative view (2019, background): “[16–20], whereas analogous studies in the case of the HST measurements have been conducted for instance in [21–25]: in both cases, no obvious solution to the dilemma has been found (see ar X iv :1 90 7.”
A buyer’s guide to the Hubble constant (2021, background): “One hypothesis is that there is a prompt/bright SN Ia type that is continuously renewed by star formation, and an delayed/dimmer type originating from stars formed when the galaxy was young (Rigault et al. 2015, 2013; Maoz et al. 2014).”
Planck2015 results (2015, unknown): “…in tension with the Story et al. (2013) SPT data (as discussed in 23 As this paper was nearing completion, results from the Nearby Supernova Factory have been presented that indicate a correlation between the peak brightness of Type Ia SNe and the local star-formation rate (Rigault et al. 2015).”
Does the Hubble constant tension call for new physics? (2018, background): “For possible issues with biases from SNe Ia having locally star-forming environments (in which Cepheids originate predominately) being dimmer than SNe Ia having locally passive environments, see [34].”
H0LiCOW - V. New COSMOGRAIL time delays of HE 0435-1223: H0 to 3.8 per cent precision from strong lensing in a flat ΛCDM model (2016, background): “…errors or hints at new physics beyond flat-ΛCDM is currently a hot topic of discussion in the community (see e.g. Efstathiou 2014; Planck Collaboration et al. 2015a; Rigault et al. 2015; Spergel et al. 2015; Addison et al. 2016; Di Valentino et al. 2016; Riess et al. 2016, and references therein).”
Measuring Dark Energy Properties with Photometrically Classified Pan-STARRS Supernovae. II. Cosmological Parameters (2017, background): “Several papers have recently asserted that SN Ia corrected magnitudes are correlated with their local star formation environments on a scale of ∼1-3 kpc (the LSF step; Rigault et al. 2013, 2015).”
Measuring the Hubble constant with Type Ia supernovae as near-infrared standard candles (2017, unknown): “0.1; Rigault et al. 2013, 2015; Kelly et al. 2015; Jones et al. 2015; Roman et al. 2017).”
A 2.4% DETERMINATION OF THE LOCAL VALUE OF THE HUBBLE CONSTANT (2016, methodology): “%) are above the LSFR threshold adopted by Rigault et al. (2013, 2015), which is a larger fraction than the 50%–60% in the Hubble-flow sample (Jones et al. 2015).”
Hubble Parameter and Baryon Acoustic Oscillation Measurement Constraints on the Hubble Constant, the Deviation from the Spatially Flat ΛCDM Model, the Deceleration–Acceleration Transition Redshift, and Spatial Curvature (2017, background): “8 For earlier studies based on smaller H(z) compilations, see Busti et al. (2014); Wang & Meng (2017). lower H0 with larger error bars (Rigault et al. 2015; Fernández Arenas et al. 2017; Zhang et al. 2017; Dhawan et al. 2018).”