Evidence of Environmental Dependencies of Type Ia Supernovae from the Nearby Supernova Factory indicated by Local H$\alpha$

By M. Rigault, Y. Copin, G. Aldering, P. Antilogus, C. Aragon, S. Bailey, C. Baltay, S. Bongard, C. Buton, A. Canto and 26 more. 2013

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Context. Use of Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) as distance indicators has proven to be a powerful technique for measuring the darkenergy equation of state. However, recent studies have highlighted potential biases correlated with the global properties of their host galaxies, large enough to induce systematic errors into such cosmological measurements if not properly treated. Aims. We study the host galaxy regions in close proximity to SNe Ia in order to analyze relations between the properties of SN Ia events and environments where their progenitors most likely formed. In this paper we focus on local H emission as an indicator of young progenitor environments. Methods. The Nearby Supernova Factory has obtained flux-calibrated spectral timeseries for SNe Ia using integral field spectroscopy. These observations enabled the simultaneous measurement of the SN and its immediate vicinity. For 89 SNe Ia we measured or set limits on H emission, used as a tracer of ongoing star formation, within a 1 kpc radius around each SN. This constitutes the first direct study of the local environment for a large sample of SNe Ia with accurate luminosity, color, and stretch measurements. Results. Our local star formation measurements provide several critical new insights. We find that SNe Ia with local H emission are redder by 0:036 0:017 mag, and that the previously noted correlation between stretch and host mass is driven entirely by the SNe Ia coming from locally passive environments, in particular at the low-stretch end. There is no such trend for SNe Ia in locally star-forming environments. Our most important finding is that the mean standardized brightness for SNe Ia with local H emission is 0:094 0:031 mag fainter on average than for those without. This o set arises from a bimodal structure in the Hubble residuals, with one mode being shared by SNe Ia in all environments and the other one exclusive to SNe Ia in locally passive environments. This structure also explains the previously known host-mass bias. We combine the star formation dependence of this bimodality with the cosmic star formation rate to predict changes with redshift in the mean SN Ia brightness and the host-mass bias. The strong change predicted is confirmed using high-redshift SNe Ia from the literature. Conclusions. The environmental dependences in SN Ia Hubble residuals and color found here point to remaining systematic errors in the standardization of SNe Ia. In particular, the observed brightness o set associated with local H emission is predicted to cause a significant bias in current measurements of the dark energy equation of state. Recognition of these e ects o ers new opportunities to improve SNe Ia as cosmological probes. For instance, we note that the SNe Ia associated with local H emission are more homogeneous, resulting in a brightness dispersion of only 0:105 0:012 mag.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Instrumentation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/5fe5687512506b264f69b17447a8dd3ef39e4930

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Citations in the corpus

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).”
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).”
Observational Clues to the Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae (2013, methodology): “Rigault et al. (2013) have shown this trend at the local level in SN Ia host galaxies, using local Hα surface brightness as a star-formation tracer.”
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).”
Large Magellanic Cloud Cepheid Standards Provide a 1% Foundation for the Determination of the Hubble Constant and Stronger Evidence for Physics beyond ΛCDM (2019, background): “In studies of the unpublished SN Factory sample, Rigault et al. (2013, 2018) suggested that the presence of local Hα, a consequence of a very young population, may have an important dependence on SN distance with strong Hα (for a specific local mass) producing fainter SNe (a similar effect as…”
Rock ‘n’ roll solutions to the Hubble tension (2019, background): “[11–16]) or a statistical fluctuation, it is possible that we are seeing the first signs of a theory beyond the standard cosmological model.”
The Zwicky Transient Facility: Science Objectives (2019, background): “More importantly, the small SN Ia intrinsic dispersion fraction of distance estimate errors means that the potential for systematic uncertainties is much reduced (BaroneNugent et al. 2013; Rigault et al. 2013; Nordin et al. 2018).”
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).”
Improved cosmological constraints from a joint analysis of the SDSS-II and SNLS supernova samples (2014, background): “Using the same data and local measurements of the Hα emission in the SN neighborhood, Rigault et al. (2013) recently reported a 3.1σ difference in shape and color-corrected luminosity between SNe Ia from Hα emitting regions (SNe Iaα) and SNe Ia from neutral environments (∆McorrB (Ia − Iaα) = −0.094…”
Nonminimal dark sector physics and cosmological tensions (2019, background): “[22–26] in the context of the local distance”
The Fifteenth Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys: First Release of MaNGA-derived Quantities, Data Visualization Tools, and Stellar Library (2018, background): “…that some of this remaining spread correlates with global host galaxy properties such as stellar mass, star-formation history, and metallicity (e.g. Lampeitl et al. 2010; Gupta et al. 2011; Hayden et al. 2013; Rigault et al. 2013) causing concerns about biases in cosmological measurements.”
New physics in light of the H0 tension: An alternative view (2019, background): “[21] Nearby Supernova factory collaboration, M.”
The Complete Light-curve Sample of Spectroscopically Confirmed SNe Ia from Pan-STARRS1 and Cosmological Constraints from the Combined Pantheon Sample (2017, methodology): “One possible systematic uncertainty from our baseline analysis is if the mass–luminosity relation itself changes with redshift, as predicted by Rigault et al. (2013) and Childress et al. (2014).”
The Pantheon+ Analysis: Cosmological Constraints (2022, background): “…specific star formation rate (sSFR), stellar-population age, and metallicity have all been shown to correlate to varying degrees with the distance-modulus residuals after standardization (Lampeitl et al. 2010; Sullivan et al. 2010; Childress et al. 2013b; Rigault et al. 2013; Rose et al. 2019).”