Distances with <4% precision from type Ia supernovae in young star-forming environments

Patrick L Kelly; Alexei V Filippenko; David L Burke; Malcolm Hicken; Mohan Ganeshalingam; WeiKang Zheng

doi:10.1126/science.1261475

Distances with <4% precision from type Ia supernovae in young star-forming environments

Science. 2015 Mar 27;347(6229):1459-62. doi: 10.1126/science.1261475.

Authors

Patrick L Kelly¹, Alexei V Filippenko², David L Burke³, Malcolm Hicken⁴, Mohan Ganeshalingam⁵, WeiKang Zheng²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411, USA. pkelly@astro.berkeley.edu.
² Department of Astronomy, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-3411, USA.
³ SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory, 2575 Sand Hill Road, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
⁴ Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA.
⁵ Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, 1 Cyclotron Road, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.

PMID: 25814580
DOI: 10.1126/science.1261475

Abstract

The luminosities of type Ia supernovae (SNe), the thermonuclear explosions of white-dwarf stars, vary systematically with their intrinsic color and the rate at which they fade. From images taken with the Galaxy Evolution Explorer (GALEX), we identified SNe Ia that erupted in environments that have high ultraviolet surface brightness and star-formation surface density. When we apply a steep model extinction law, we calibrate these SNe using their broadband optical light curves to within ~0.065 to 0.075 magnitude, corresponding to <4% in distance. The tight scatter, probably arising from a small dispersion among progenitor ages, suggests that variation in only one progenitor property primarily accounts for the relationship between their light-curve widths, colors, and luminosities.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.