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G. H. Marion, P. Höflich (University of Texas at Austin), W. D. Vacca (Max-Planck-Institut fuer extraterrestrische Physik), J. C. Wheeler (University of Texas at Austin)
We present eleven near infrared (NIR) spectra from Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia). Each spectrum covers the range 0.80-2.50/mu with a resolution of 1200, 750 or 250. The images were obtained using the SpeX instrument at the NASA Infrared Telescope Facility (IRTF). The temporal range of the spectra is from two days before maximum light to eighteen days after. Our detailed models of SNe Ia explosions provide line identifications for the spectral features at all epochs.
Type Ia supernovae are excellent probes of the universe at great distance due to their tremendous brightness and apparent homogeneity. The NIR between 0.8\mu and 2.5\mu is optimal for examining certain products of the SN Ia explosion that may be blended or obscured in other spectral regions. Observations in these other spectral regimes fail to resolve many questions about the nature of the progenitors, the explosion mechanism, and dynamics of SNe Ia. NIR analysis can provide significant new constraints on SNe Ia physics. It will also contribute to understanding the systematics and calibration of the high-z supernova data.
The models utilize hydrodynamic simulations of the explosion and a radiation transport code for the nucleosynthesis that have been very successful in making predictions and analyzing the optical (Höflich & Khokhlov 1996) and infrared (Meikle, et al., 1996, Höflich, et al., 2001) behavior of SNe Ia. Our program compares the spectra obtained at the IRTF to synthetic spectra produced by our models.
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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.