| 1. |
- Becker, A, et al.
(författare)
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Exploring the Outer Solar System with the ESSENCE Supernova Survey
- 2008
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Ingår i: The Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 682:1, s. L53-L56
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report the discovery and orbital determination of 14 trans-Neptunian objects (TNOs) from the ESSENCE Supernova Survey difference imaging data set. Two additional objects discovered in a similar search of the SDSS-II Supernova Survey database were recovered in this effort. ESSENCE repeatedly observed fields far from the solar system ecliptic (-21° < β < -5°), reaching limiting magnitudes per observation of I~23.1 and R~23.7. We examine several of the newly detected objects in detail, including 2003 UC414, which orbits entirely between Uranus and Neptune and lies very close to a dynamical region that would make it stable for the lifetime of the solar system. 2003 SS422 and 2007 TA418 have high eccentricities and large perihelia, making them candidate members of an outer class of TNOs. We also report a new member of the ``extended'' or ``detached'' scattered disk, 2004 VN112, and verify the stability of its orbit using numerical simulations. This object would have been visible to ESSENCE for only ~2% of its orbit, suggesting a vast number of similar objects across the sky. We emphasize that off-ecliptic surveys are optimal for uncovering the diversity of such objects, which in turn will constrain the history of gravitational influences that shaped our early solar system.
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| 2. |
- Blondin, S, et al.
(författare)
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Time Dilation in Type Ia Supernova Spectra at High Redshift
- 2008
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Ingår i: The Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 682:2, s. 724-736
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present multiepoch spectra of 13 high-redshift Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) drawn from the literature, the ESSENCE and SNLS projects, and our own separate dedicated program on the ESO Very Large Telescope. We use the Supernova Identification (SNID) code of Blondin and Tonry to determine the spectral ages in the supernova rest frame. Comparison with the observed elapsed time yields an apparent aging rate consistent with the 1/(1+z) factor (where z is the redshift) expected in a homogeneous, isotropic, expanding universe. These measurements thus confirm the expansion hypothesis, while unambiguously excluding models that predict no time dilation, such as Zwicky's ``tired light'' hypothesis. We also test for power-law dependencies of the aging rate on redshift. The best-fit exponent for these models is consistent with the expected 1/(1+z) factor.
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| 3. |
- Christensen,, et al.
(författare)
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IFU observations of the GRB 980425/SN 1998bw host galaxy: emission line ratios in GRB regions
- 2008
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Context. The collapsar model predicts that the progenitors of Gamma-ray Bursts (GRBs) are metal poor in Fe group elements. The existence of low metallicity stellar populations could manifest itself in the characteristics of the GRB site immediate environment in the host galaxy.Aims. We analyse the strong emission lines from the sub-luminous host galaxy of GRB 980425, which showed the first connection with a supernova explosion (SN 1998bw). The host is of sufficient size to allow detailed resolved spectroscopy of individual H II regions and to search for regions with peculiar properties close to the the GRB site.Methods. Using integral field spectroscopy with VIMOS we study most of the high surface brightness part of the host including the H II region where the supernova and GRB occurred.Results. The star formation rate, reddening, equivalent width and stellar mass in the GRB region is similar to other H II regions in the host. Extreme values arise in the only region that shows emission lines from Wolf-Rayet stars, a region that is located 800 pc in projection from the GRB site. Strong emission line diagnostics of all H II regions imply oxygen abundances between 0.3 and 0.8 solar with the lowest values arising in the WR and GRB regions. Including uncertainties from the metallicity diagnostics, all metallicities are similar to within 3$\sigma $. We demonstrate that there is a good agreement between the luminosity weighted and mass weighted specific star formation rates (SSFR) in individual young H II regions. While the global average of the SSFR is similar to high redshift GRB hosts, there are significant variations between individual resolved H II regions. Comparing the measured emission line ratios of low redshift GRB hosts to theoretical models and observations of field galaxies, we find that GRBs are present in different environment metallicities while the regions of their origin are consistently very young. Similar line ratios of GRB hosts compared with those of the WR region can arise in spatially unresolved galaxies with bright H II regions close to the GRB location.
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| 4. |
- Davis, Tamara, et al.
(författare)
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Scrutinizing Exotic Cosmological Models Using ESSENCE Supernova Data Combined with Other Cosmological Probes
- 2007
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Ingår i: The Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 666:2, s. 716-725
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The first cosmological results from the ESSENCE supernova survey (Wood-Vasey and coworkers) are extended to a wider range of cosmological models including dynamical dark energy and nonstandard cosmological models. We fold in a greater number of external data sets such as the recent Higher-z release of high-redshift supernovae (Riess and coworkers), as well as several complementary cosmological probes. Model comparison statistics such as the Bayesian and Akaike information criteria are applied to gauge the worth of models. These statistics favor models that give a good fit with fewer parameters. Based on this analysis, the preferred cosmological model is the flat cosmological constant model, where the expansion history of the universe can be adequately described with only one free parameter describing the energy content of the universe. Among the more exotic models that provide good fits to the data, we note a preference for models whose best-fit parameters reduce them to the cosmological constant model.
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| 5. |
- Elíasdóttir, Á., et al.
(författare)
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Dust Extinction in High-z Galaxies with Gamma-Ray Burst Afterglow Spectroscopy : The 2175 Å Feature at z = 2.45
- 2009
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 697, s. 1725-1740
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We report the clear detection of the 2175 Å dust absorption feature in the optical afterglow spectrum of the gamma-ray burst (GRB) GRB 070802 at a redshift of z = 2.45. This is the highest redshift for a detected 2175 Å dust bump to date, and it is the first clear detection of the 2175 Å bump in a GRB host galaxy, while several tens of optical afterglow spectra without the bump have been recorded in the past decade. The derived extinction curve gives AV = 0.8-1.5 depending on the assumed intrinsic slope. Of the three local extinction laws, a Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) type extinction gives the best fit to the extinction curve of the host of GRB 070802. Besides the 2175 Å bump we find that the spectrum of GRB 070802 is characterized by unusually strong low-ionization metal lines and possibly a high metallicity for a GRB sightline ([Si/H] = -0.46 ± 0.38, [Zn/H] = -0.50 ± 0.68). In particular, the spectrum of GRB 070802 is unique for a GRB spectrum in that it shows clear C I absorption features, leading us to propose a correlation between the presence of the bump and C I. The gas-to-dust ratio for the host galaxy is found to be significantly lower than that of other GRB hosts with N(H I)/AV = (2.4 ± 1.0) × 1021 cm-2 mag-1, which lies between typical Milky Way and LMC values. Our results are in agreement with the tentative conclusion reached by Gordon et al. that the shape of the extinction curve, in particular the presence of the bump, is affected by the UV flux density in the environment of the dust. Based on observations collected under progs. ID 079.D-0429(B) and 177.D-0591(P,Q), using the FORS2 instrument installed at the Cassegrain focus of the Very Large Telescope (VLT), Unit 1 - Antu, operated by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) on Cerro Paranal, Chile.
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| 6. |
- Foley, Ryan, et al.
(författare)
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Constraining Cosmic Evolution of Type Ia Supernovae
- 2008
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Ingår i: The Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 684:1, s. 68-87
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present a large-scale effort of creating composite spectra of high-redshift SNe Ia and comparing them to low-redshift counterparts in an attempt to understand possible cosmic evolution of SNe Ia, which has major implications for studies of dark energy. Through the ESSENCE project, we have obtained 107 spectra of 88 high-redshift SNe Ia with excellent light-curve information. In addition, we have obtained 397 spectra of low-redshift SNe Ia through a multiple-decade effort at the Lick and Keck Observatories, and we have used 45 UV spectra obtained by HST and IUE. The low-redshift spectra act as a control sample when comparing to the ESSENCE spectra. In all instances, the ESSENCE and Lick composite spectra appear very similar. The addition of galaxy light to the Lick composite spectra allows an excellent match of the overall SED with the ESSENCE composite spectra, indicating that the high-redshift SNe are more contaminated with host galaxy light than their low-redshift counterparts. This is caused by observing objects at all redshifts with similar angular slit widths, which corresponds to different projected physical distances. After correcting for the galaxy light contamination, a few marginally significant differences in the spectra remain. We have estimated the systematic errors when using current spectral templates for K-corrections to be ~0.02 mag. The variance in the composite spectra gives an estimate of the intrinsic variance in low-redshift maximum light SN spectra of ~3% relative flux in the optical and growing toward the UV. The difference between the maximum light low- and high-redshift spectra constrains the evolution of SN spectral features between our samples to be <10% relative flux in the rest-frame optical. Currently, galaxy contamination and the small samples of rest-frame UV spectra at low and high redshifts are the limiting factors for future studies.
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| 7. |
- Fynbo, J. P. U., et al.
(författare)
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Low-resolution Spectroscopy of Gamma-ray Burst Optical Afterglows : Biases in the Swift Sample and Characterization of the Absorbers
- 2009
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Ingår i: Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0067-0049 .- 1538-4365. ; 185:2, s. 526-573
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present a sample of 77 optical afterglows (OAs) of Swift detected gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) for which spectroscopic follow-up observations have been secured. Our first objective is to measure the redshifts of the bursts. For the majority (90%) of the afterglows, the redshifts have been determined from the spectra. We provide line lists and equivalent widths (EWs) for all detected lines redward of Lyα covered by the spectra. In addition to the GRB absorption systems, these lists include line strengths for a total of 33 intervening absorption systems. We discuss to what extent the current sample of Swift bursts with OA spectroscopy is a biased subsample of all Swift detected GRBs. For that purpose we define an X-ray-selected statistical sample of Swift bursts with optimal conditions for ground-based follow-up from the period 2005 March to 2008 September; 146 bursts fulfill our sample criteria. We derive the redshift distribution for the statistical (X-ray selected) sample and conclude that less than 18% of Swift bursts can be at z > 7. We compare the high-energy properties (e.g., γ-ray (15-350 keV) fluence and duration, X-ray flux, and excess absorption) for three subsamples of bursts in the statistical sample: (1) bursts with redshifts measured from OA spectroscopy; (2) bursts with detected optical and/or near-IR afterglow, but no afterglow-based redshift; and (3) bursts with no detection of the OA. The bursts in group (1) have slightly higher γ-ray fluences and higher X-ray fluxes and significantly less excess X-ray absorption than bursts in the other two groups. In addition, the fractions of dark bursts, defined as bursts with an optical to X-ray slope βOX < 0.5, is 14% in group (1), 38% in group (2), and >39% in group (3). For the full sample, the dark burst fraction is constrained to be in the range 25%-42%. From this we conclude that the sample of GRBs with OA spectroscopy is not representative for all Swift bursts, most likely due to a bias against the most dusty sight lines. This should be taken into account when determining, e.g., the redshift or metallicity distribution of GRBs and when using GRBs as a probe of star formation. Finally, we characterize GRB absorption systems as a class and compare them to QSO absorption systems, in particular the damped Lyα absorbers (DLAs). On average GRB absorbers are characterized by significantly stronger EWs for H I as well as for both low and high ionization metal lines than what is seen in intervening QSO absorbers. However, the distribution of line strengths is very broad and several GRB absorbers have lines with EWs well within the range spanned by QSO-DLAs. Based on the 33 z > 2 bursts in the sample, we place a 95% confidence upper limit of 7.5% on the mean escape fraction of ionizing photons from star-forming galaxies. Based on observations collected at the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere, Chile, under programs 275.D-5022 (PI: Chincarini), 075.D-0270 (PI: Fynbo), 077.D-0661 (PI: Vreeswijk), 077.D-0805 (PI: Tagliaferri), 177.A-0591 (PI: Hjorth), 078.D-0416 (PI: Vreeswijk), 079.D-0429 (PI: Vreeswijk), 080.D-0526 (PI: Vreeswijk), 081.A-0135 (PI: Greiner), 281.D-5002 (PI: Della Valle), and 081.A-0856 (PI: Vreeswijk). Also based on observations made with the Nordic Optical Telescope, operated on the island of La Palma jointly by Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden, in the Spanish Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos of the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias. Some of the data obtained herein were obtained at the W.M. Keck Observatory, which is operated as a scientific partnership among the California Institute of Technology, the University of California, and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The Observatory was made possible by the generous financial support of the W.M. Keck foundation.
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| 8. |
- Gerardy, Christopher L., et al.
(författare)
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Signatures of Delayed Detonation, Asymmetry, and Electron Capture in the Mid-Infrared Spectra of Supernovae 2003hv and 2005df
- 2007
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Ingår i: The Astrophysical Journal. - : American Astronomical Society. - 0004-637X .- 1538-4357. ; 661:2, s. 995-1012
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We present mid-infrared (5.2-15.2 μm) spectra of the Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) 2003hv and 2005df observed with the Spitzer Space Telescope. These are the first observed mid-infrared spectra of thermonuclear supernovae, and show strong emission from fine-structure lines of Ni, Co, S, and Ar. The detection of Ni emission in SN 2005df 135 days after the explosion provides direct observational evidence of high-density nuclear burning forming a significant amount of stable Ni in a SN Ia. The SN 2005df Ar lines also exhibit a two-pronged emission profile, implying that the Ar emission deviates significantly from spherical symmetry. The spectrum of SN 2003hv also shows signs of asymmetry, exhibiting blueshifted [Co III], which matches the blueshift of [Fe II ] lines in nearly coeval near-infrared spectra. Finally, local thermodynamic equilibrium abundance estimates for the yield of radioactive 56Ni give M56Ni~0.5 Msolar, for SN 2003hv, but only M56Ni~0.13-0.22 Msolar for the apparently subluminous SN 2005df, supporting the notion that the luminosity of SNe Ia is primarily a function of the radioactive 56Ni yield. The observed emission-line profiles in the SN 2005df spectrum indicate a chemically stratified ejecta structure, which matches the predictions of delayed detonation (DD) models, but is entirely incompatible with current three-dimensional deflagration models. Furthermore, the degree that this layering persists to the innermost regions of the supernova is difficult to explain even in a DD scenario, where the innermost ejecta are still the product of deflagration burning. Thus, while these results are roughly consistent with a delayed detonation, it is clear that a key piece of physics is still missing from our understanding of the earliest phases of SN Ia explosions.
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| 9. |
- Gröningsson, Per, et al.
(författare)
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High resolution spectroscopy of the inner ring of SN 1987A
- 2008
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Ingår i: Astronomy and Astrophysics. - : EDP Sciences. - 0004-6361 .- 1432-0746. ; 479:3, s. 761-777
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We discuss high resolution VLT/UVES observations (FWHM similar to 6 kms(-1)) from October 2002 (day similar to 5700 past explosion) of the shock interaction of SN 1987A and its circumstellar ring. A large number of narrow emission lines from the unshocked ring, with ion stages from neutral up to Ne V and Fe VII, have been identified. A nebular analysis of the narrow lines from the unshocked gas indicates gas densities of (similar to 1.5 - 5.0) x 10(3) cm(-3) and temperatures of similar to 6.5 x 10(3) - 2.4 x 104 K. This is consistent with the thermal widths of the lines. From the shocked component we observe a large range of ionization stages from neutral lines to [FeXIV]. From a nebular analysis we find that the density in the low ionization region is 4 x 10(6) - 10(7) cm-3. There is a clear difference in the high velocity extension of the low ionization lines and that of lines from [Fe X - XIV], with the latter extending up to similar to- 390 km s(-1) in the blue wing for [Fe XIV], while the low ionization lines extend to typically similar to- 260 km s(-1). For H alpha a faint extension up to similar to- 450 km s(-1) can be seen probably arising from a small fraction of shocked high density clumps. We discuss these observations in the context of radiative shock models, which are qualitatively consistent with the observations. A fraction of the high ionization lines may originate in gas which has yet not had time to cool, explaining the difference in width between the low and high ionization lines. The maximum shock velocities seen in the optical lines are similar to 510 km s(-1). We expect the maximum width of especially the low ionization lines to increase with time.
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| 10. |
- Gröningsson, Per, et al.
(författare)
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High resolution spectroscopy of the line emission from the inner circumstellar ring of SN 1987A and its hot spots
- 2007
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Rapport (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- We discuss high resolution VLT/UVES observations (FWHM ~ 6 km/s) from October 2002 (day ~5700 past explosion) of the shock interaction of SN 1987A and its circumstellar ring. A nebular analysis of the narrow lines from the unshocked gas indicates gas densities of (1.5-5.0)E3 cm-3 and temperatures of 6.5E3-2.4E4 K. This is consistent with the thermal widths of the lines. From the shocked component we observe a large range of ionization stages from neutral lines to [Fe XIV]. From a nebular analysis we find that the density in the low ionization region is 4E6-1E7 cm-3. There is a clear difference in the high velocity extension of the low ionization lines and that of lines from [Fe X-XIV], with the latter extending up to ~ -390 km/s in the blue wing for [Fe XIV], while the low ionization lines extend to typically ~ -260 km/s. For H-alpha a faint extension up to ~ -450 km/s can be seen probably arising from a small fraction of shocked high density clumps. We discuss these observations in the context of radiative shock models, which are qualitatively consistent with the observations. A fraction of the high ionization lines may originate in gas which has yet not had time to cool down, explaining the difference in width between the low and high ionization lines. The maximum shock velocities seen in the optical lines are ~ 510 km/s. We expect the maximum width of especially the low ionization lines to increase with time.
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