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[123.05] Infrared studies of Type Ia supernovae

M. A. Verdugo Olivares (PUC, CTIO REU/PIO Student 2002), K. Krisciunas (CTIO/OCIW), N. B. Suntzeff (CTIO), M. M. Phillips (OCIW), P. Candia (CTIO)

In this project we created an atlas of near-infrared and optical light curves taken from the literature and from our unpublished JHK data of nearby SNe observed at CTIO and LCO. Our objective was to determine whether or not Type Ia supernovae are standardizable candles in the near-infrared. The preliminary conclusions are: a) The morphology of the infrared light curves does not form a simple monotonically changing sequence when organized as a function of evolutionary speed (\Deltam₁₅(B)). Apparently a few SNe which are otherwise normal in the optical seem to have anomalous near-infrared light curves, especially in the J-band. This makes it difficult to construct a single-parameter family of templates that characterize the infrared light curves. However, in general there is a pattern to the these light curves in the sense that the secondary maximum occurs later and more strongly for slower-declining SNe. But, as shown in Krisciunas et al. (2001) for the I-band, there are exceptions to this trend. b) H-band absolute magnitudes 10 days after the time of B-band maximum are essentially constant at -17.91 and not a function of \Deltam₁₅(B). c) We obtain a Hubble constant of 71.4 ± 2.5 km s^-1 Mpc^-1 and a dispersion of ±0.24 mag in the H-band Hubble diagram.

¹CTIO REU/PIA student 2002.

The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: mverduol@puc.cl

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Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, 34, #4
© 2002. The American Astronomical Soceity.