Environmental dependence of Type Ia supernova standardization on the local luminosity-weighted age

Abstract

Context. The dependence of Type Ia supernova (SNe Ia) standardized luminosity on host galaxy properties constitutes a significant systematic error in cosmology. However, the widely used empirical mass step, acting as an indirect global proxy, obscures the direct physical link to the progenitor environment, thereby limiting the precision of SNe Ia luminosity standardization. Aims. We investigate the fundamental origin of these dependencies by comparing local luminosity-weighted age (LWA) with global mass, testing whether the mass step is a proxy for progenitor age. Methods. Using SDSS-MaNGA Pipe3D, we measure local LWA within a 1 kpc aperture for 56 SNe Ia and perform a joint likelihood analysis to separate the effects of local age and mass on Hubble residuals. Results. SNe Ia in younger environments are significantly fainter than those in older environments, showing an age step of 0.163 mag (5.2-sigma) after standardization. Although global and local mass steps are initially detected (0.071 mag, 2.0-sigma and 0.087 mag, 2.4-sigma, respectively), both become insignificant after accounting for age. The global mass step decreases to 0.028 mag (0.9-sigma), while the age step remains 0.156 mag (4.9-sigma). Similarly, the local mass step decreases to 0.012 mag (0.3-sigma), whereas the age step remains 0.157 mag (4.4-sigma). Including the local LWA age step reduces the Hubble residual dispersion (wRMS) from 0.1550 to 0.1376 mag. Conclusions. Our results provide strong evidence that approximately 50%-60% of the variance from the stellar mass step is due to an environmental dependence on progenitor age. A systematic bias in the dark energy equation of state parameter could be introduced if the age-dependent luminosity evolution is neglected, highlighting the necessity of local age corrections for next-generation cosmology.