Nearby supernova rates from the Lick Observatory Supernova Search – III. The rate–size relation, and the rates as a function of galaxy Hubble type and colour

By Weidong Li, Ryan Chornock, J. Leaman, A. Filippenko, Dovi Poznanski, Xiaofeng Wang, M. Ganeshalingam, Filippo Mannucci UC Berkeley CfA, Harvard Texas AM Thca, T. University and 1 more. 2010

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This is the third paper of a series in which we present new measurements of the observed rates of supernovae (SNe) in the local Universe, determined from the Lick Observatory Supernova Search (LOSS). We have considered a sample of ∼1000 SNe and used an optimal subsample of 726 SNe (274 SNe Ia, 116 SNe Ibc and 324 SNe II) to determine our rates. We study the trend of the rates as a function of a few quantities available for our galaxy sample, such as luminosity in the B and K bands, stellar mass and morphological class. We discuss different choices (SN samples, input SN luminosity functions, inclination correction factors) and their effect on the rates and their uncertainties. A comparison between our SN rates and the published measurements shows that they are consistent with each other to within the uncertainties when the rate calculations are done in the same manner. Nevertheless, our data demonstrate that the rates cannot be adequately described by a single parameter using either galaxy Hubble types or B ― K colours. A secondary parameter in galaxy 'size', expressed by luminosity or stellar mass, is needed to adequately describe the rates in the rate-size relation: the galaxies of smaller sizes have higher SN rates per unit mass or per unit luminosity. The trends of the SN rates in galaxies of different Hubble types and colours are discussed. We examine possible causes for the rate-size relation. Physically, such a relation for the core-collapse SNe is probably linked to the correlation between the specific star-formation rate and the galaxy sizes, but it is not clear whether the same link can be established for SNe Ia. We discuss the two-component ('tardy' and 'prompt') model for SN Ia rates, and find that the SN Ia rates in young stellar populations might have a strong correlation with the core-collapse SN rates. We derive volumetric rates for the different SN types [e.g. for SNe Ia, a rate of (0.301 ± 0.062) x 10 ―4 SN Mpc ―3 yr ―1 at redshift 0] and compare them to the measurements at different redshifts. Finally, we estimate the SN rate for the Milky Way Galaxy to be 2.84 ± 0.60 SNe per century (with a systematic uncertainty of a factor of ∼2), consistent with published SN rates based on several different techniques.

Subfields: Astronomy and Astrophysics, Nuclear and High Energy Physics

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/c80142af0c0ca766230ccd34f272fd7d31a50553

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Citations in the corpus

Short-Duration Gamma-Ray Bursts (2013, methodology): “Unlike core-collapse SNe, Type Ia events are found in both early- and late-type galaxies (e.g.,van den Bergh 1990, van den Bergh & Tammann 1991, Li et al. 2011), reflecting the wide range of timescales for the accretion or merger process that eventually leads to a supernova.”
THE COSMIC CORE-COLLAPSE SUPERNOVA RATE DOES NOT MATCH THE MASSIVE-STAR FORMATION RATE (2011, methodology): “The most reliable SNR measurement is that by LOSS (Leaman et al. 2011; Li et al. 2011a,b; Maoz et al. 2011): they have excellent cadence and the largest published SN sample.”
SUPERNOVA SIMULATIONS AND STRATEGIES FOR THE DARK ENERGY SURVEY (2011, methodology): “In fact, current measurements indicate that the parameters φ∗, M∗, and α∗ all vary with z.(Blanton et al. 2003; Faber et al. 2007; Li et al. 2011b; Poli et al. 2003).”
Possible indirect confirmation of the existence of Pop III massive stars by gravitational wave (2014, background): “…large mass-loss at the SN explosion.6 Under the assumption of the equality of the formation rate to the merger rate, the merger rate of the NS–NSs is limited by the Type Ib and Ic SN rate of ∼10−3 events yr−1 galaxy−1 (Cappellaro et al. 1997; Cappellaro, Evans & Turatto 1999; Li et al. 2011).”
Observational Clues to the Progenitors of Type Ia Supernovae (2013, background): “This merger rate is similar to recent estimates of the SN Ia rate per unit mass in Sbc-type galaxies of MilkyWay mass, ∼ 1 × 10−13 yr−1M−1 (Li et al. 2011b, Mannucci et al. 2005, see Section 3.5.7, below).”
Neutron Star Mergers Might Not Be the Only Source of r-process Elements in the Milky Way (2018, background): “Otherwise, they would be exclusively found in star-forming late-type galaxies, as for core-collapse supernovae (CC SNe) (e.g., Li et al. 2011) and long GRBs (e.g., Berger 2014).”
CORE-COLLAPSE SUPERNOVAE FROM 9 TO 120 SOLAR MASSES BASED ON NEUTRINO-POWERED EXPLOSIONS (2015, result): “This ratio is consistent with observations for spiral galaxies similar to the Milky Way (Li et al. 2011).”
CALCIUM-RICH GAP TRANSIENTS IN THE REMOTE OUTSKIRTS OF GALAXIES (2011, unknown): “Therefore, a lower limit on the rate is > 7× 10−7Mpc−3 yr−1 (we used the SN Ia rate from Li et al. 2011).”
Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger (2017, background): “The lack of features and blue continuum during the first few hours implied an unusual, but not unprecedented transient since such characteristics are common in cataclysmic–variable stars and young core-collapse supernovae (see, e.g., Li et al. 2011a, 2011b).”
Bolometric light curves and explosion parameters of 38 stripped-envelope core-collapse supernovae (2014, background): “…& Kirshner 2012; Crowther 2013), the stellar populations surrounding SNe (e.g. Kuncarayakti et al. 2013; Williams et al. 2014), and SN rates (e.g. Li et al. 2011; Smith et al. 2011) all provide alternate means of probing the underlying progenitors populations and investigating differences in…”
The delay-time distribution of Type Ia supernovae from Sloan II (2012, methodology): “M11 applied the method to a subsample of the galaxies in the Lick Observatory SN Search (LOSS; Leaman et al. 2011; Li et al. 2011a,b) that have SFHs based on Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS; York et al. 2000) spectra, as recovered by Tojeiro et al. (2009), and to the SNe found by LOSS in those…”