CTIO PIA 2002 Student Project

Miguel Verdugo Olivares
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago

Project Title

Infrared studies of Type Ia Supernovae

Advisor: Nick Suntzeff





Objectives


My project, consists of the following parts:

  • Gather together as many published and unpublished light curves of Type Ia supernovae in the infrared as possible.

  • Characterize the light curves and "optical minus infrared" colors.

  • Put together an H-band Hubble diagram. This has two purposes: a) Investigate to what extent Type Ia supernovae are standard candles in the infrared. b) Determine the Hubble constant.




    • LOOK MY PRESENTATION ABOUT MY PROJECT.

    This project finally is showed in the 201st American Astronomical Society meeting, realized in Seattle, USA, January, 2003. The abstract is the following:

    Infrared Studies of Type Ia Supernovae
    M. Verdugo (PUC), K. Krisciunas (CTIO/OCIW), N. B. Suntzeff (CTIO), M. M. Phillips (OCIW), P. Candia (CTIO)


    Abstract

    We have created an atlas of near-infrared and optical light curves taken from the literature and from our unpublished JHK data of nearby SNe observed at CTIO and LCO. Our objective was to determine whether or not Type Ia supernovae are standardizable candles in the near-infrared. The preliminary conclusions are: a) The morphology of the infrared light curves does not form a simple monotonically changing sequence when organized as a function of evolutionary speed (Dm_15(B)). Apparently a few SNe which are otherwise normal in the optical seem to have anomalous near-infrared light curves, especially in the J-band. This makes it difficult to construct a single-parameter family of templates that characterize the infrared light curves. However, in general there is a pattern to these light curves in the sense that the secondary maximum occurs later and more strongly for slower-declining SNe. But, as shown in Krisciunas et al. (2001) for the I-band, there are exceptions to this trend. b) H-band absolute magnitudes 10 days after the time of B-band maximum are essentially constant at -17.91 and not a function of Dm_15(B). c) We obtain a Hubble constant of 71.5 +/- 2.5 km/s/Mpc and a dispersion of +/-0.24 mag in the H-band Hubble diagram.


    Look the poster presented in the AAS meeting (Powerpoint format ~ 3Mb) and a JPEG copy (~1 MB). Also, here are printable copies in postscript format or its pdf copy. Both contain the same text and graphics than the poster but organized in a diferent way.


    Acknowledments
    I am very grateful to Nick Suntzeff and Kevin Krisciunas for their time dedication and assistance. Also I am grateful to Mark Phillips and Pablo Candia for provide data for this project. Finally I am grateful to all CTIO people and specially to Nicole van der Bliek and Alan Whiting.

    This research was supported in part by the NFS through the CTIO REU/PIA program.


    E-mail: mverduol@puc.cl



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