Late-time photometry of two nearby type II-P supernovae： 2004dj and 2004et

We present late-time photometry for two bright type II-P supernovae （SNe） 2004dj and 2004et, extending over 400 d after the explosion, which are measured with a set of intermediate-band filters that have the advantage of tracing the strength variations of some spectral features. Although these two SNe II-P exhibit similar photometric evolution at earlier times, they diverge during the nebular phase. SN 2004dj shows a slow late-time decline rate with - 0.7 ±0.1 mag （100d）^-1 during the period ranging from t ≈ 200 - 300 d after the explosion, while SN 2004et shows a much faster decline rate at a comparable phase, e.g., 1.3 ± 0.1 mag （100d）^-1. The steeper decay rate seen in SN 2004et is likely due to dust formation in the explosion ejecta. Based on intermediate-band photometry, we derived the evolution of the feature lines [e.g., Hα] of SNe 2004dj and 2004et which are similar in flux at comparable phases but perhaps with significantly different decay rates. The origin of the observed variations in the continuum and the feature lines is briefly discussed.     

Automated estimation of stellar fundamental parameters from low resolution spectra: the PLS method

PLS (Partial Least Squares regression) is introduced into an automatic esti-mation of fundamental stellar spectral parameters. It extracts the most correlative spec-tral component to the parameters (Teff, log g and [Fe/H]), and sets up a linear regres-sion function from spectra to the corresponding parameters. Considering the properties of stellar spectra and the PLS algorithm, we present a piecewise PLS regression method for estimation of stellar parameters, which is composed of one PLS model for Teff, and seven PLS models for log g and [Fe/H] estimation. Its performance is investigated by large experiments on flux calibrated spectra and continuum normalized spectra at dif-ferent signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and resolutions. The results show that the piecewise PLS method is robust for spectra at the medium resolution of 0.23 nm. For low resolu-tion 0.5 nm and 1 nm spectra, it achieves competitive results at higher SNR. Experiments using ELODIE spectra of 0.23 nm resolution illustrate that our piecewise PLS models trained with MILES spectra are efficient for O ～ G stars: for flux calibrated spectra, the systematic offsets are 3.8%, 0.14dex, and -0.09 dex for Teff, log g and [Fe/H], with error scatters of 5.2%, 0.44 dex and 0.38 dex, respectively; for continuum normalized spectra, the systematic offsets are 3.8%, 0.12dex, and -0.13 dex for Teff, log g and [Fe/H], with error scatters of 5.2%, 0.49 dex and 0.41 dex, respectively. The PLS method is rapid, easy to use and does not rely as strongly on the tightness of a parameter grid of templates to reach high precision as Artificial Neural Networks or minimum distance methods do.     

A Study on the CdZnTe Array Detector

The CdZnTe array detector is a new type of semiconductor detector being rapidly developed in recent years. It possesses a high spatial resolution and a high energy resolution, and it can work at room temperatures. This paper describes the physical properties and working principle of the CdZnTe array detector, as well as the manufacturing technology, including the chip pretreatment, passivation, ohmic electrode preparation, array template selection, and array packaging technology (micro-interconnection). For evaluating the perfor-mance of the detector, the authors have developed successfully a 4 pixel×4 pixel CdZnTe array and an 8 pixel×8 pixel CdZnTe array (with the thicknesses of 5 mm and 2 mm, the pixel size of 2 mm×2 mm, and the gaps of 0.15 mm and 0.2 mm, respectively) in cooperation with the partner. A multi-channel electronic readout system based on the ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit) chip is devel-oped independently for the charge measurement of the 4 pixel×4 pixel CdZnTe array. The energy spectra and corresponding energy resolutions of the 16 pixels are obtained with the ¹³⁷Cs radiative source, among them the best resolution is 4.8%@662 kev.     

Late-time photometry of two nearby type Ⅱ-P supernovae: 2004dj and 2004et

We present late-time photometry for two bright type Ⅱ-P supernovae (SNe) 2004dj and 2004et, extending over 400 d after the explosion, which are measured with a set of intermediate-band filters that have the advantage of tracing the strength variations of some spectral features. Although these two SNe Ⅱ-P exhibit similar photometric evolution at earlier times, they diverge during the nebular phase. SN 2004dj shows a slow late-time decline rate with ～0.7±0.1 mag (100d)-1 during the period ranging from t≈200-300 d after the explosion, while SN 2004et shows a much faster decline rate at a comparable phase, e.g., 1.3±0.1 mag (100d)-1. The steeper decay rate seen in SN 2004et is likely due to dust formation in the explosion ejecta. Based on intermediate-band photometry, we derived the evolution of the feature lines [e.g., Hα] of SNe 2004dj and 2004et which are similar in flux at comparable phases but perhaps with significantly different decay rates. The origin of the observed variations in the continuum and the feature lines is briefly discussed.