The statistical investigation of type Ib/c and II supernovae and their host galaxies

This is a statistical study of the properties of type Ib/c and II supernovae and of the integral parameters of their spiral host galaxies. The methods of one-dimensional and multivariate statistics were applied to the data sample. It was found that the Ib/c supernovae are more concentrated radially toward the centers of the galaxies than those of type II. The distributions of the radial distances R_SN/R₂₅ for the type Ib/c and II supernovae in active galaxies are more concentrated toward the center than in normal galaxies. This effect is stronger for type Ib/c than for type II supernovae. __________ Translated from Astrofizika, Vol. 51, No. 1, pp. 89–98 (February 2008).     

Distribution of type Ib/c supernovae relative to galactic spiral arms

Type Ib/c supernovae are shown to be concentrated to the inner edges of the spiral arms, with the distributions for type Ib and Ic supernovae being identical. We have found differences between the distributions of type II and Ib/c supernovae relative to spiral arms, suggesting that the type Ib/c presupernovae are, on average, younger.     

On core-collapse supernovae in normal and in Seyfert galaxies

This paper estimates the relative frequency of different types of core-collapse supernovae, in terms of the ratio between the number of Type Ib–Ic and of Type II supernovae. We estimate independently for all normal and Seyfert galaxies whose radial velocity is ≤14 000 km s⁻¹, and which had at least one supernova event recorded in the Asiago catalogue from 1986 January to 2000 August. We find that the ratio is  ≈0.23±0.05  in normal galaxies. This value is consistent with constant star formation rate and with a Salpeter initial mass function and an average binary rate ≈50 per cent. On the contrary, Seyfert galaxies exceed the ratio in normal galaxies by a factor ≈4 at a confidence level ≳2 σ . A caveat is that the numbers for Seyferts are still small (six of Type Ib–Ic and six of Type II supernovae discovered as yet). Assumed to be real, this excess of Type Ib/c supernovae may indicate a burst of low-age star formation  ( τ ≲20 Myr)  , a high incidence of binary systems in the inner regions  ( r ≲0.4 R ₂₅)  of Seyfert galaxies, or a top-loaded mass function.     

Type-Ia supernovae in dense circumstellar gas

We propose a model for the bolometric light curve of a type-Ia supernova (SN Ia) that explodes in a dense circumstellar (CS) envelope. Our modeling of the light curves for SN 2002ic and SN 1997cy shows that the densities of the CS envelopes around both supernovae at a radius of ～7×10¹⁵ cm are similar, while the characteristic ejection time for this envelope around SN 1997cy does not exceed 600 yr. We analyze two possible evolutionary scenarios that could lead to the explosion of a SN Ia inside a dense C S hydrogen envelope: accretion onto a CO white dwarf in a symbiotic binary and the evolution of a single star with an initial mass of about 8M_⊙. If the hypothesis of a SN Ia explosion in a dense CS envelope is correct for SN 2002ic and SN 1997cy, then we must assume that the the rapid loss of the red-supergiant envelope in several hundred years and the subsequent explosion of the CO white dwarf are synchronized by some physical mechanism. This mechanism may be related to the contraction of the white dwarf as it approaches the Chandrasekhar limit. We show that the formation of a (super-)Chandrasekhar mass due to the merger of a CO white dwarf and the CO core of a red supergiant followed by a supernovae explosion is unlikely, since this mechanism does not provide the required synchronization of the rapid mass loss and the explosion.     

A comparative study of type I and type II supernovae

Revised photometric data are used to compare the light and colour curves of type I and type II supernovae (SNe I, SNe II); their statistical properties are also compared. No significant difference between SNe I and SNe II has been found in their radial distribution and frequency of outbursts in spiral galaxies. The comparison of light and colour curves reveals several features common to both types and the possibility of transition between types.     

Radial distributions of gamma-ray bursts and type Ib/c supernovae in galaxies

Data on the positions of gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) in galaxies are used to construct the radial distributions of their surface density. The gradient in GRB surface density is shown to decrease sharply at a galactocentric distance equal to the effective galactic radius. In central galactic regions, the GRB density distribution agrees with the galactic surface-brightness distribution; in outer regions, the GRB density decreases more slowly than does the surface brightness. Based on improved statistics, we analyze the radial distribution of type Ib/c supernovae. We show that it differs insignificantly from the distributions of other types of supernova and exhibits a much closer similarity to the distribution of star-forming regions than do GRBs. Although the statistics for GRBs is poor, the deviation of their distribution from the distribution of active star-forming regions in nearby galaxies seems to have been firmly established. A correlation of GRBs with the distribution of dark matter in outer galactic regions is not ruled out.     

Analysis of the spatial distribution of gamma-ray bursts in their host galaxies

We compare the radial distributions of known localized gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) relative to the centers of their host galaxies with the distributions of known objects in nearby galaxies (supernovae of various types, X-ray binaries), the hypothetical dark-matter profiles, and the distribution of luminous matter in galaxies in the model of an exponential disk. By comparing the moments of empirical distributions, we show that the radial distribution of GRBs in galaxies differs significantly from that of other sources. We suggest a new statistical method for comparing empirical samples that is based on estimating the number of objects within a given radius. The exponential disk profile was found to be in best agreement with the radial distribution of GRBs. The distribution of GRBs relative to the centers of their host galaxies also agrees with the dark matter profile at certain model parameters.     

Distributions of supernovae of different types along the radius and in <Emphasis Type="Italic">z</Emphasis> coordinate of galaxies

The distributions of supernovae of different types and subtypes along the radius and in z coordinate of galaxies have been studied. We show that among the type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) in spiral galaxies, SNe Iax and Ia-norm have, respectively, the largest and smallest concentration to the center; the distributions of SNe Ia-91bg and Ia-91T are similar. A strong concentration of SNe Ib/c to the central regions has been confirmed. In spiral galaxies, the supernovae of all types strongly concentrate to the galactic plane; the slight differences in scale height correlate with the extent to which the classes of supernovae are associated with star formation.     

The cooling time of white dwarfs produced from type Ia supernovae

Type Ia supernovae(SNe Ia)play a key role in measuring cosmological parameters,in which the Phillips relation is adopted.However,the origin of the relation is still unclear.Several parameters are suggested,e.g.the relative content of carbon to oxygen(C/O)and the central density of the white dwarf(WD)at ignition.These parameters are mainly determined by the WD's initial mass and its cooling time,respectively.Using the progenitor model developed by Meng & Yang,we present the distributions of the initial WD mass and the cooling time.We do not find any correlation between these parameters.However,we notice that as the range of the WD's mass decreases,its average value increases with the cooling time.These results could provide a constraint when simulating the SN Ia explosion,i.e.the WDs with a high C/O ratio usually have a lower central density at ignition,while those having the highest central density at ignition generally have a lower C/O ratio.The cooling time is mainly determined by the evolutionary age of secondaries,and the scatter of the cooling time decreases with the evolutionary age.Our results may indicate that WDs with a long cooling time have more uniform properties than those with a short cooling time,which may be helpful to explain why SNe Ia in elliptical galaxies have a more uniform maximum luminosity than those in spiral galaxies.     

Type-Ia supernovae in semidetached binaries

We consider the evolutionary scenarios for close binaries that lead to the formation of semidetached systems in which a white dwarf can accumulate the Chandrasekhar mass through mass accretion from its companion, a main sequence star or a subgiant of mass M ～ 2M_⊙. Such dwarfs probably explode as type-Ia supernovae or collapse to form a neutron star. The population synthesis method is used to analyze the dependence of the model rate of these events in the Galaxy on the common envelope parameter, the mass transfer rate, and the response of a main-sequence star to helium accretion at an intermediate evolutionary stage. The rate of explosions in semidetached systems of this type in the Galaxy was found to be no higher than ?0.2×10^?3 yr^?1, which is less than 10% of the lower level for the empirically estimated SNe Ia rate.     

Host galaxies of type Ibc supernovae

We draw up a list of type Ib and Ic supernovae and construct the distributions of morphological types, luminosity classes, and axial ratios of their host galaxies, which we compare to similar distributions for type II supernovae. Our analysis reveals no significant statistical differences between these distributions and demonstrates that the samples of host galaxies of SNe Ibc and SNe II can be regarded as drawn from the same parent population.     

The origin of intergalactic thermonuclear supernovae

The population synthesis method is used to study the possibility of explaining the appreciable fraction of the intergalactic type-Ia supernovae (SN Ia), 20 ₋₁₅ ⁺¹² %, observed in galaxy clusters (Gal-Yam et al. 2003) when close white dwarf binaries merge in the cores of globular clusters. In a typical globular cluster, the number of merging double white dwarfs does not exceed ∼10⁻¹³ per year per average cluster star in the entire evolution time of the cluster, which is a factor of ∼3 higher than that in a Milky-Way-type spiral galaxy. From 5 to 30% of the merging white dwarfs are dynamically expelled from the cluster with barycenter velocities up to 150 km s⁻¹. SN Ia explosions during the mergers of double white dwarfs in dense star clusters may account for ∼1% of the total rate of thermonuclear supernovae in the central parts of galaxy clusters if the baryon mass fraction in such star clusters is ∼0.3%.     

Paired galaxies with different activity levels and their supernovae

We investigate the influence of close neighbor galaxies on the properties of supernovae (SNe) and their host galaxies using 56 SNe located in pairs of galaxies with different levels of star formation (SF) and nuclear activity. The statistical study of SN hosts shows that there is no significant difference between morphologies of hosts in our sample and the larger general sample of SN hosts in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 8 (DR8). The mean distance of type II SNe from nuclei of hosts is greater by about a factor of 2 than that of type Ibc SNe. The distributions and mean distances of SNe are consistent with previous results compiled with the larger sample. For the first time it is shown that SNe Ibc are located in pairs with significantly smaller difference of radial velocities between components than pairs containing SNe Ia and II. We consider this as a result of higher star formation rate (SFR) of these closer systems of galaxies. SN types are not correlated with the luminosity ratio of host and neighbor galaxies in pairs. The orientation of SNe with respect to the preferred direction toward neighbor galaxy is found to be isotropic and independent of kinematical properties of the galaxy pair.     

The influence of host galaxy morphology on the properties of Type Ia supernovae from the JLA compilation

The observational cosmology with distant Type Ia supernovae (SNe) as standard candles claims that the Universe is in accelerated expansion, caused by a large fraction of dark energy. In this paper we investigate the SN Ia environment, studying the impact of the nature of their host galaxies on the Hubble diagram fitting. The supernovae (192 SNe) used in the analysis were extracted from Joint-Light-curves-Analysis (JLA) compilation of high-redshift and nearby supernovae which is the best one to date. The analysis is based on the empirical fact that SN Ia luminosities depend on their light curve shapes and colors. We confirm that the stretch parameter of Type Ia supernovae is correlated with the host galaxy type. The supernovae with lower stretch are hosted mainly in elliptical and lenticular galaxies. No significant correlation between SN Ia colour and host morphology was found. We also examine how the luminosities of SNe Ia change depending on host galaxy morphology after stretch and colour corrections. Our results show that in old stellar populations and low dust environments, the supernovae are slightly fainter. SNe Ia in elliptical and lenticular galaxies have a higher α (slope in luminosity-stretch) and β (slope in luminosity-colour) parameter than in spirals. However, the observed shift is at the 1-σ uncertainty level and, therefore, can not be considered as significant. We confirm that the supernova properties depend on their environment and that the incorporation of a host galaxy term into the Hubble diagram fit is expected to be crucial for future cosmological analyses.     

Revisiting the magnification of type Ia supernovae with SDSS

We cross-correlate the sample of type Ia supernovae from Riess A. G. et al. with the SDSS DR2 photometric galaxy catalogue. In contrast to recent work, we find no detectable correlation between supernova magnitude and galaxy overdensity on scales ranging between 1 and 10 arcmin. Our results are in accord with theoretical expectations for gravitational lensing of supernovae by large-scale structure. Future supernova surveys such as SNAP will be capable of detecting unambiguously the predicted lensing signal.     

Extinction curves flattened by reverse shocks in supernovae

We investigate the extinction curves of young galaxies in which dust is supplied from Type II supernovae (SNe II) and/or pair instability supernovae (PISNe). Since at high redshift ( z > 5), low-mass stars cannot be dominant sources for dust grains, SNe II and PISNe, whose progenitors are massive stars with short lifetimes, should govern the dust production. Here, we theoretically investigate the extinction curves of dust produced by SNe II and PISNe, taking into account reverse shock destruction induced by collision with ambient interstellar medium. We find that the extinction curve is sensitive to the ambient gas density around a SN, since the efficiency of reverse shock destruction strongly depends on it. The destruction is particularly efficient for small-sized grains, leading to a flat extinction curve in the optical and ultraviolet wavelengths. Such a large ambient density as   n _H≳ 1 cm⁻³  produces too flat an extinction curve to be consistent with the observed extinction curve for SDSS J1048+4637 at z = 6.2. Although the extinction curve is highly sensitive to the ambient density, the hypothesis that the dust is predominantly formed by SNe at z ∼ 6 is still allowed by the current observational constraints. For further quantification, the ambient density should be obtained by some other methods. Finally, we also discuss the importance of our results for observations of high- z galaxies, stressing a possibility of flat extinction curves.     

Observations of supernovae in the period 1997–1999

Astronomy Letters - We present our photometric observations of the 15 supernovae (SN) discovered in the period 1997–1999; of these, six are type Ia SN, two are peculiar type Ia SN, three are...     

Ia超新星的几个问题

首先利用Ａｓｉａｇｏ 超新星星表对Ｉａ 超新星作了统计分析。其次用具有精确测光的Ｉａ 超新星对其均匀性及多样性进行了研究。旋涡星系中Ｉａ 超新星的产生率比椭圆星系的要高。最亮的Ｉａ 超新星只出现于晚型旋涡星系中;而旋涡星系及早型的椭圆星系都是暗Ｉａ 超新星的寄主星系。离星系中心越近Ｉａ 超新星的光度弥散有增加的趋势,但这一趋势对蓝Ｉａ 超新星不明显。利用色指数可将Ｉａ 超新星划分为蓝超新星及红超新星。蓝Ｉａ 超新星构成了相对均匀的Ｉａ 超新星样本,是较好的距离指示器;而红Ｉａ 超新星的存在则表明了Ｉａ 超新星整体多样性的特点。最后,我们还探讨了Ｉａ 超新星中碳点火的非线性问题。     

Theoretical light curves of Type II-P supernovae and applications to cosmology

Based on an extensive grid of stellar models between 13 and  25 M_⊙  and a wide range of metallicities, we have studied the light curves of core collapse supernovae, their application to cosmology and their evolutionary effects with redshift. The direct link between the hydrodynamics and radiation transport allows us to calculate monochromatic light curves.
With decreasing metallicity, Z , and increasing mass, progenitors tend to explode as compact blue supergiants (BSG) and produce subluminous supernovae that are approximately 1.5 mag dimmer than normal Type II supernovae (SNe II) with red supergiant (RSG) progenitors. Progenitors with small masses tend to explode as RSGs even at low Z . The consequence for testing the chemical evolution is obvious, namely a strong bias when using the statistics of core collapse supernovae to determine the history of star formation.
Our study is limited in scope with respect to the explosion energies and the production of radioactive Ni. Within the class of extreme SNe II-P supernovae, the light curves are rather insensitive with respect to the progenitor mass and explosion energy compared with analytic models based on parametrized stellar structures. We expect a wider range of brightness due to variations in ⁵⁶Ni because radioactive energy is a significant source of luminosity. However, the overall insensitivity of light curves may allow their use as quasi-standard candles for distance determination.     

The absolute infrared magnitudes of type Ia supernovae

The absolute luminosities and homogeneity of early-time infrared (IR) light curves of type Ia supernovae are examined. Eight supernovae are considered. These are selected to have accurately known epochs of maximum blue light as well as having reliable distance estimates and/or good light curve coverage. Two approaches to extinction correction are considered. Owing to the low extinction in the IR, the differences in the corrections via the two methods are small. Absolute magnitude light curves in the J , H and K bands are derived. Six of the events, including five established 'branch-normal' supernovae, show similar coeval magnitudes. Two of these, supernovae (SNe) 1989B and 1998bu, were observed near maximum infrared light. This occurs about 5 d before maximum blue light. Absolute peak magnitudes of about −19.0, −18.7 and −18.8 in J , H and K respectively were obtained. The two spectroscopically peculiar supernovae in the sample, SNe 1986G and 1991T, also show atypical IR behaviour. The light curves of the six similar supernovae can be represented fairly consistently with a single light curve in each of the three bands. In all three IR bands the dispersion in absolute magnitude is about 0.15 mag, and this can be accounted for within the uncertainties of the individual light curves. No significant variation of absolute IR magnitude with B -band light curve decline rate, Δ m ₁₅( B ), is seen over the range 0.87<Δ m ₁₅( B )<1.31. However, the data are insufficient to allow us to decide whether or not the decline rate relation is weaker in the IR than in the optical region. IR light curves of type Ia supernovae should eventually provide cosmological distance estimates that are of equal, or even superior, quality to those obtained in optical studies.